Red Rag to a Bull
by mg56
Summary: When Brick returns from the dead, Blossom is left with a seemingly obvious choice dump her husband Eddy for her ture love. But with too waring sisters, an overbearing boss, plenty of villains and two hurt kids, is true love relevent? FINISHED
1. Summary

**1. Summary**

Okay, hello again and welcome to another sequel. The summary page is back because I'm still hopeful of attracting some new readers, so Hello! Please don't run off just yet, especially if you have critisiums.

If you're confused, feel free to bombard me with questions.

If you have read all my previous stories, wow, some one came back! You should move on to chapter two as there is nothing new here.

This story takes place four years after the last main one (i.e. Absolute Chaos, not Hell Freeza's over.)

Powerpuff Characters: All these are from the normal series, I did not create them and do not own them. Puffs/Ruffs are 37 years old, and due to the events of the last story, they have all (possibly temporarily) lost their powers accept Brick.

Blossom: Married (see below) with two children. Has been through the mill recently, ranging from having completely given up her superpowers to being the leader of all superheroes, and then back down again. Having lost a lot of confidence in her self, Blossom was back on the rise again, although no where near the level of when she was a kid.

Bubbles: Is married to Boomer (predictably). Bubbles had recently received a huge boost in her strength and power (see below) that was having an adverse affect on her behavior. But this all lead to the lost of all the Puff's powers, and a massive falling out with Buttercup.

Buttercup: Is married to Butch, and has been for eight years. She has had serious fertility problems, and the one time Butch and her were able to conceive, she lost the baby. In the last part she saw the kid again, only to have her taken away once more. Still, she and Butch have recently adopted.

Butch: Married to Buttercup, (yes, I know I just said). Also now a superhero, but still manages to abuse his position to make money in less than legal ways. He was recently caught doing this, but has just about convinced Buttercup to let him back in the house. Devastated by the loss of the baby, Butch blames himself for the fact that they haven't had a natural child.

Boomer: Married to Bubbles, is now a superhero, and much more honest about it than Butch. Bubbles has him firmly wrapped around her finger.

Brick: Died at seventeen, details of this in "Can you keep a Secret." Despite this obvious handicap, he is still a major character. Used to work for Death collecting the souls of those who have just died. He is still in love with Blossom, who also still loves him. In the last main story, Brick managed to get back into the real world to save them from Bubbles and Buttercup who'd both been turned evil by the massive power they had absorbed, but as a result ended up in Hell. Not before he'd kissed Blossom though. In the short story in between he managed to escape Hell by doing a deal with Him to give the demon his first born Grandson, which shouldn't be a problem, since Brick doesn't even believe he has a child.

Any other characters from the standard series can be assumed to be in the same state as in the show, just suitably older.

Crossover characters: I use these because I'm unoriginal. More may (and will) appear as needed, but only the two below are major characters.

Eddy: From Ed, Edd and Eddy, is married to Blossom(?) Not really accepted by Bubbles and Buttercup, but more so by Butch and Butch. Quite how he got here isn't clear. He is fully aware that Blossom loves Brick more then him, and is able to accept this, although not very well. Struggles to tell Blossom how he really feels, so tries to ignore it by focusing on the children. Was devastated by the fact that Blossom kissed Brick as soon as he returned last story, but since Brick appears to be completely out of the picture, he decided not to do anything about it.

Sonic: Yes, the Hedgehog, (I know, I Know.) He is the leader of the Superheroes, making him the puffs/ruffs boss. Sonic initially hated Blossom, due to her seemingly perfect childhood, compared to Sonic, who was fighting a war on his home planet. Sonic fled to earth after being falsely accused of murdering his wife and son. Has eventually grown to like Blossom as much as he can like a person, and claims that they have had "Parallel Lives." I will have clear that it is purely a friendship however (don't be sick.)

My characters: Characters I created. Feel free to use, if you can find one for them (which you won't, because no sane person would pair Eddy and Blossom…)

Edward: Blossom and Eddy's son, ten years old. Didn't know his mum was a superhero until very recently (did know about Bubbles and Buttercup), and not to keen on it himself. Has an ambition to be a rally driver, and refuses to use his powers at all. His greatest fear is that he may be destined to be a superhero, and that's something he's determined to fight off by ignoring. Very protective of his sister. Was delighted to loose his powers, so he can now focus on his life.

MJ: Edwards's younger sister, five years old. She has the same knowledge of her family as Edward does, but desperately wants to be a superhero. Varies between being happy and chirpy to seeming very withdrawn. Was being bullied at school, until Edward took matters into his own hands, but still doesn't have many friends. Also now has powers similar to Spiderman as well as her Puff powers. (See below) Has lost the puff powers like everyone else, but has kept her spider ones.

Roland: Another of Death's workers, merely there as someone for Brick to talk to. Probably won't appear this time, but never say die.

Sonia: Sonic's daughter.

SP: A clone of MJ, SP was created by Mojo to act as a prototype for an arm of clones that he was creating (subsequently destroyed brutally by Bubbles.) Bubbles also tried to destroy SP, but she was saved by Butch, who feels responsible, as he helped Mojo create her. SP later escaped, and was determined to kill Bubbles, MJ and Mojo (who sent her away for failing). SP has purple eyes and Black hair, and is a defective clone, so is weaker then MJ. After the last story she was adopted by Buttercup and Butch.

Brandy: Buttercup and Butch's unborn child. Looked after in Death's domain by Brick and his room mate Roland, she was taken by Brick to earth in the last story to help save the world. Succeeded, but was then taken back by Death to avoid her being dragged down to Hell like Brick was. The pain of seeing her Daughter taken away a second time is the motivation behind Buttercup's current hatred for Bubbles, who's fault the incident was.

Other concepts

SSR: the government funded superhero organisation. Sonic was charge and Blossom was second in command, but Sonic treated her more as a glorified secretary. When Sonic got arrested and taken back to his home planet for execution, Blossom took over as leader, but later got arrested herself for murder. In the end Sonic got back and took over the SSR again, but Blossom is now a proper second in command. The other Puffs/Ruffs are also members, as well as anyone else I pull out of thin air.

Blossom's secret: Related to Brick's death. Basically, in confusing, high pressure circumstances, Blossom ended up killing Superman, who'd just killed Brick. Sonic was first on the scene, and covered up for her by claiming that Brick killed Superman, and Blossom killed Brick in response. Other people that were aware of the truth were Eddy, Butch and Boomer – who were told so they didn't try to get Blossom out of her sister's lives. NOTE, Bubbles and Buttercup did not know.

Eventually, it was found out be the rest of the world, and Blossom was in jail awaiting almost certain execution, when the remaining citizens of Superman's home planet arrived to try and conquer earth. Blossom was able to defeat there leader and became the hero of the hour. She was thus pardoned for her crimes, but is still not the most popular member of the SSR with those close to Superman.

MJ's Power's: MJ was changed into a half spider creature by Him when she asked him for superpowers, before her mother had told her that she had them naturally. Like spider-man, she can fire web lines from her wrists and stick to walls, but she also has two large front canine teeth, and the ability to spit acid. She still has her puff powers too, which makes her stronger then any of the Puffs/ruffs, except possibly Bubbles now.

However, the spider side of her mind is often difficult to control, and MJ had on occasion's gone crazy around blood and meat (as per Him's original intention.)

SP has the same powers as MJ, but is weaker. She has actually killed some one though. She and MJ also share a mental link, which means that if one is asleep they will see what the other is doing.

Chaos Energy: Sonic claims that the Chemical X that created the Puffs is actually a chaos liquid, the source of the Chaos energy from his world. He also says that Chaos energy is naturally evil, so that the puffs/ruffs are very dangerous especially if they are angry. Blossom has twice lost control of herself due to anger, and immediately became a lot more powerful, but with the side affect of not being able to control her self. This also explains why the more aggressive Buttercup is naturally the best fighter, and how Bubbles has previously got stronger when she's been angry. Bubbles accidentally absorbed a Chaos Emerald, which is what caused her to change into a satisdic yet stunningly beautiful and extremely powerful "Ultimate" version of her self. Unable to control it properly, she soon turned evil, as did Buttercup when she also absorbed the energy to try and stop her (Buttercup's form being unbelievable strong.) Blossom, who didn't transform due to not being able to reach the energy, destroyed the grey emerald needed to keep the chaos energy stable in order to defeat her sister. It worked, but cost all the puffs and ruffs their powers until the Chaos energy stabilizes at an unknown future point; except from brick, who was unaffected being in Hell at the time.

Apology: Sorry to Terry Prachett, who I've stolen some ideas off (but I'm in good company in that field!)

Right, if you think this is stupid, press the back button and I wish you all the best. If you think this could be good, but don't understand what I've just written, or want to know more, you can go skim read my earlier stories, or ask me a question in a review. If you want to read the story, let's begin.


	2. Back to Blossom and Family

Right, thanks for turning on. We're on the ninth story of my serise now, so if I'm loosing my touch (assuming I had any to start with,) let me know. Okay, without further ado...

**1. Back to Blossom and Family**

Let's step back for a moment. My regular readers, _(hello! Thanks!_) know, Brick is back on earth again, and about to come dropping back in to the world like an atomic bomb landing on a small garden shed, but we – like the shed – aren't ready yet. When we last saw them, our heroes had just lost there (Puff) powers, and despite the fact that they'd all got home safely and the powers were likely to return at some point, their immediate future was looking rather uncertain, let alone the long term one. Four years is a long time in anyone's life, so it's worth taking a few moments to look at what the Puff's and remaining ruff's lives had settled into.

To that end, we'll go back in time, although only one week. It's a Sunday afternoon, the penultimate in the summer holidays; and on this balmy August day, as the sun shone blindingly through the few clouds present, Edward Panner was concentrating very hard.

As a kid, Edward had been raised as much as possible as normal (not that any family is normal) despite the fact that he was the son of Blossom Utonium. In fact Edward didn't even know he – let alone his mother – was a super being until he was ten years old. Still Edward had been a stubborn child and had refused to have anything to do with his special powers. Thus the thought of taking advice from his mother on his future had not been in any of this future plans. He'd wanted to be a rally drive when he grew up, not a superhero.

But things change, and four years is a long time. By now, he was fifteen years old, which of course meant that now he was even more stubborn. Yet taking Blossom's advice is exactly what he was doing; keep calm, keep a good gap and don't let his movements affect yours unless it's absolutely necessary. Edward glanced quickly over his shoulder, and looked straight at his pursuer and at the anger in his eyes. Edward had something he really wanted, but the half Puff wasn't going to give it up easily. He was in front after all.

Edward looked back to the front, and effortlessly flicked him self to the left and the right, around the obstacles at break neck speed. It was too easy, he thought, and there was no point in pushing too hard, that would just wear things out. He focused on keeping things steady for now. Give it a few minutes, just to give the other guy hope. Then he'd blow him into the dust. That would be "style" his aunty Buttercup would be proud of.

But then, unexpectedly, he was hit from behind, hard. Edward whipped round, and for just a moment he was nose to nose with his chaser. Then he wasn't again, he was facing a wall head on. He hit it like that too, but fortunately there was a stack of tyres in between him and the concrete, so the impact was softened slightly. But still, he was furious.

So Edward scrambled out of the kart as quick as a very angry flash, and stormed over to his opponent, how was still sitting rather dazed in his equally battered machine. Ignoring the rush of other drivers passing (and the delighted yelp of the former third place competitor whom had just been gifted the lead,) Edward pushed up his visor and taped his opponent hard on the top his helmet.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he bellowed at him, "TRYING TO GET US KILLED!" With that he stormed off back to his kart.

Okay, so things hadn't changed that much.

* * *

Edward was still fuming in the car on the way home. "I had him, I really did!" he declared for the umpteenth time, "but nooo! He must have been ten metres behind me when he tried that move. What was he thinking, there's no way he could overtake at that corner anyway!"

"That's enough," said Eddy firmly. "I know blaming the other person is an important life skill, but that doesn't mean we all have to listen to you."

"What do you mean by that Dad?" asked Edward tetchily.

"I mean that you could have given him room on the inside to come through. Then he would have overshot the corner and you'd be straight back past him, and have an even bigger lead. Besides you were cruising out there, if you'd been pushing the limit, he wouldn't have been close enough to pass you…"

"I was trying to preserve the kart," Edward retorted bitterly, "as you told me too! Save money on tyres etc! I…"

"If you talk anymore about motor racing I think I'm going to walk home," interrupted Blossom. Not so long ago, when she still had her powers, that wouldn't have been an empty threat.

"Don't stop them now Mum," giggled MJ, "I think it's funny when Edward starts ranting."

Her older brother snorted. "Sorry," he said in the tone that suggested he was anything but. This only made MJ laugh more.

"And Eddy don't be so hard on him," Blossom continued. "He's still learning, and he won one of the races today."

"Yep, you sure did," Eddy smile, turning round to face Edward, "You can't be too upset about one result, I mean you've had a very successful summer."

Edward smiled too (as Blossom reached across from the passenger seat and grabbed the wheel.) "Your right dad," he said, before a look of determination spread across his face, "and next weekend I'll win both races!"

"Whoa," Eddy replied in the appropriate tone, "what next weekend?"

"I…"

"That race is miles away, and you're back at School the following day and we agreed that this wouldn't affect your studies."

"Did you take School that seriously when you were my age?" asked Edward.

"No, but I should have," came the honest, and typically parental response. "Most people don't make it in motor racing, or rallying or any sport, and you need something to fall back on. Do you want to grow up just to be as good as me?"

"No," admitted Edward. Blossom thought for a moment about this, and decided it was fair comment. As the slightly over weight owner of an unsuccessful second hand car dealer, Eddy would be the first to admit that he hadn't made a lot of his life, except for his family, and her. But that had been fortunate in it's self – Blossom should have been with… no, she wasn't going to think about him right now. Eddy was her husband, and as far as Blossom was concerned he was a good father and husband. Even so…

"Maybe he could go," she suggested quietly, hoping the kids wouldn't hear the little split in the front and take advantage of it.

"Oh no," replied Eddy firmly, "I'm putting my foot down here. Okay?" This almost made Blossom laugh; Eddy never put his foot down on anything (except possibly a nail while he was trying to repair something in the house rather then hiring someone to do it.) Secratly, Blossom was impressed to see him looking out for his son's future, even if it made him the "unpopular parent." She wondered briefly if he knew that.

"No, don't worry Mum," said Edward seriously. "I understand. I made a promise to you two and I'll keep it."

"That's a good boy," Blossom said. She looked back at her son. He'd certainly changed in the four years since he'd lost his powers, since he'd never really used them that hadn't affected him too much. He'd grown form a little boy to a strong mid-teen; in fact, his appearance reminded Blossom more of Brick then Eddy, a lot more. She tried not to dwell on this too much, but it was difficult. Edward had been born five years after Brick had died, but he defiantly appeared to have got more from his Puff side then human one. Blossom was sure that all the high school girls would have been all over him (all mothers think like this,) if it wasn't for the one thing he had inherited from his father – the slight awkwardness. Sometimes Blossom wondered if he did it on purpose, as his own twisted way of being an individual. At others, she was utterly certain that he was genuinely clueless on the subjects of "coolness" and girls. Still he seemed happy enough.

This wasn't always true of MJ, who had gone very quiet at the mention of school. "That means no more late night web slinging for you either MJ," Blossom reminded her. MJ looked up.

"Oh, okay," she said, her body visibly tense. At only ten years old, so still short of puberty, MJ hadn't changed as much as her brother. Her arms and legs had grown longer though, and this gave her a rather lanky appearance at times. MJ looked more like her father then her brother did, and was socially very awkward. Blossom knew at heart her daughter was a happy lively kid, but she rarely seemed to show it away from her family. It was probably due to her spider mutation, Blossom thought as MJ hadn't lost those powers. Like everyone else, her puff ones were gone, for now at least. This had lead MJ to develop a more aggressive style to her fighting – which she'd gone into in a big way – and she had a surprising amount of strength in those long limbs, as Buttercup could testify.

Still Blossom was certain her behaviour was not normal for a child of her age. Some of it could be put down to her upbringing, but she often worried about her daughter when she was at school. When Edward had been in Elementary School with her he'd been able to keep an eye on her right up until the point he had found too kids bulling her, after which his resulting actions had got him suspended. Now, with MJ left there alone it was more difficult to tell. Blossom made a mental note to talk to her teacher at some point, just to make sure.

"We'll go and see Aunty Buttercup again this week MJ," she said happily. The Spider-puff looked up. "Do you think she'll let me use her gym again?" she asked excitedly.

"Oh I'm sure," replied Blossom nervously. Not normal…

Okay, if you have questions, ask! I'd be happy to explain. And if you have criticisms, let me have them! Thanks for reading, I hope to update very soon.


	3. Life begins at 40

**2. Life Begins at Forty**

It was Friday before Blossom managed to see Buttercup. She and MJ waited patiently at the door. (She'd offered Edward the chance to come and participate in some adult conversation, but he'd said that he didn't want to intrude, which is of course polite teenage speak for I'd rather not spend my afternoon listening to you talk about hair dye and how it's so hard to find a decent plumber these days.)

It was opened fairly quickly by a predictably excitable kid. "MUM THERE HERE!" called SP with unnecessary volume. "Hello aunty Blossom, hello MJ," she then said politely, with added curtsey. Blossom nodded politely in return, as did MJ, although she eyed her clone with suspicion.

This wasn't really fair of MJ. SP had been (officially) placed in Buttercup and Butch's care because Sonic thought it was the best way to keep her from becoming a super villain and although it was also to help the two greens them selves, there was no one better for the official task. SP was now the model of peace and friendliness. She probably had more control over her aggressive spider side then MJ did, not that Blossom would readily admit it. Still, she hadn't changed that much; she still couldn't hide her emotions or lie and was completely trusting of anyone; features which made her a very sweet child, but that Blossom suspected would create an extremely annoying teenager. But, if she was going to try anything, it would be unbelievably obvious.

Still, none of the above made Blossom dislike her niece. "Hi SP," she said chirpily, "how are you my dear?"

"Great! I did a new picture today and beat up some bad people last night! It was fun."

"I bet I beat more then you," muttered MJ. SP looked at her.

"Yes, I think you probably did," she said. MJ looked irritated by this, probably because she'd been trying to bate her.

"SP, you're not supposed to talk about that, are you," Buttercup entered the room from the rear. This was true, since SP was not allowed out of the house without supervision.

The kid looked at her feet. "Sorry Mummy," she said abashed, "I forgot."

"That's okay," chuckled Buttercup, "why don't you go and play with MJ in the gym, and me and Blossom will have a cup of tea."

"Okay," replied SP excitedly, "it's this way MJ," and she bounded off. Just before MJ followed, Blossom grabbed her on the shoulder.

"Be nice," she hissed. MJ nodded (rather too hurriedly) and followed SP away.

* * *

It was another beautiful summers day (see, I do sometimes remember they're not British,) so the too sisters enjoyed tea and a crumpet outside (darn, forgot.) Blossom admired the wonderfully kept garden.

"Tell me," she asked, "how do you manage to live so well on a car mechanics and part time martial arts teacher's salary?"

Buttercup laughed. "I only have one kid," she replied instantly.

Blossom looked at her sister. She'd always expected Buttercup to be hit the hardest by the loss of her powers. For someone who enjoyed beating the crap out of people so much, suddenly being so week was not going to go down well. But, as ever, her sister had surprised her. Buttercup had copped with the problem the only way she knew how; by training. It hadn't taken her long to pick up a black belt and by being an instructor, she'd managed not only to get the flexible working hours needed for bringing up a kid, but also meant that she could work on her fighting while at work, just like she used to. Buttercup was now more strongly built then most men Blossom knew (although still quite a way of Butch, who spent hours working out when he wasn't working) but she had enough sense to know when to stop to avoid running her figure. Regardless, when, (if) she ever got her powers back, Blossom was sure there'd be very few beings that could compete with her.

That wasn't to say Blossom hadn't been affected at all. "It's the little things that make the big difference," she reflected as the afternoon went on. "Like my arm never got tired carrying shopping before.

Buttercup nodded. "Yeah, and I never noticed how inconvenient it was living on the opposite side of town from you until I had to drive there every time."

"You should try and get to Bubbles' place it's even worse," replied Blossom without thinking.

"Yes," Buttercup said flatly. "Good job I don't have too, isn't it." Blossom had long since given up trying to persuade Buttercup to forgive Bubbles, so she nodded, and thanked the heavens she'd got off with her slip so lightly. But it appeared Buttercup had something else on it. "Do you find the big things are affected by not having your powers?" she asked. Blossom thought for a moment.

"Well, once all the small ones are added up…"

"No, I mean the biggest thing," Buttercup interrupted her. It took Blossom a moment, but only a moment to see what she was getting at.

"Oh… well… why do you ask?"

Buttercup shrugged. "It's just Butch has seemed… rather cold recently. I was wondering if that could be it."

"Recently?" Blossom sat up. "You mean more recently then four years ago?" Buttercup nodded.

"I have told you that we're thinking about trying for a baby again," she said. Blossom nodded, although it wasn't really needed – her kids had given DNA samples to help proceedings. "We're just waiting for the test results to get back to check that if we do have a kid now, it will get Puff powers if they return to us," continued Buttercup. "We don't want the kid to feel second rate if they don't, if you get my meaning."

"Of course," said Blossom, "that's the quickest way to breed a super villain, but you shouldn't worry too much. You're such a great mum that I doubt the kid will suffer much."

"Humm," replied her sister with just a hint of pride. "But since we, and I mean we, made that decision, Butch has seemed… distracted. I don't know what to make of it."

Blossom didn't either. It wasn't at all like Butch to have any problems with doing over Buttercup. She was having enough problems with Eddy, who seemed to have been fairly conservative in bed ever since Mexico. This had worried Blossom too. Still, Eddy might be the solution here.

"Who are we to understand men," Blossom replied, "but I'll talk to Eddy about it. Since Butch started working for him, they seem to have come quite close, and he often says that it's amazing how much you can prise out of someone while trying to fix a Toyota. Maybe he can find out for us."

"Well it's about time he was useful," said Buttercup, but she seemed lifted by this. "You really think it will work?"

"Of course," replied Blossom. "It's probably nothing more then a minor middle life crisis or he's bruised himself in an awkward place or something. Butch is not the sort to go soft on you, you know that."

"Yeah, you're right." Buttercup downed the remainder of her tea. "Right, I'm getting edgy, do you want to join the kids?"

* * *

They arrived in the gym just in time to witness the sceptical of SP hitting the wall at high speed and crashing to the floor. She picked her self up quickly (badly bruised and bleeding from a few points.) "That's still not right MJ," she said in a guiding tone of voice, "a judo throw is just supposed to put the other person on the floor!"

"Ooops," replied MJ smugly, who was completely uninjured, "I guess I'm not very good at this."

"What are you two doing?" asked Blossom suspiciously.

"We're just sparing," said SP honestly, "and I was trying to teach MJ how to do judo throws." That may have been what you were doing, thought Blossom, but it sure as Hell wasn't what MJ was. Despite the amount of time her Mum and Dad spent working out, SP was almost as lanky as when she'd been living on the streets. Next to MJ she was extremely week, preferring to fight with a better technique. Sometimes Blossom wondered if this wasn't a subconscious decision on both children's parts to try and be as different as possible (SP had also grown her black hair long to make it different.)

"I see," said Buttercup, suggesting she saw only too well. She grabbed a robe her self off the wall and stepped into the ring with MJ. "I'll show you a throw myself MJ, if your Mum doesn't mind."

"Not at all," said Blossom, "I'll just clean SP up a bit if you don't mind."

"Fine by me. Now MJ!" The kid looked round to face her aunty, how had her sadistic grin back on her face, "this is what you are doing wrong."

It was fair to say that MJ didn't enjoy the next few minutes. But it did teach her more of a lesson then just how to do a judo throw.

* * *

That evening, Blossom was still thinking about things in bed. Buttercup and Butch having problems with sex, now that was weird. But it had raised an issue in her head again that she'd been trying to leave alone. Sure, Brick had always been better then Eddy in bed, but never by this much. Brick… she wondered what he was doing right now. She sincerely hoped he was happy, what ever was going on. _(Actually, at about this point, Cell and Freeza were knocking him through a couple of walls, so he wasn't.)_

"You okay darling?" asked Eddy, breaking Blossom's train of thoughts.

"Err what? Oh yes, fine. Why?"

"It's just you've been on that page of your book for the last half hour. Have you got something on your mind?"

"No, not really," Blossom began, and then changed her mind. If she wasn't going to see Brick again, then she better have this out now. "Actually, yes. Eddy, why has our sex life been so bad recently?"

The bluntness of the question caught Eddy off guard. "Recently? Since when?"

"About four years ago," Blossom replied. Eddy scratched his head.

"I have no idea," he replied. "Maybe we should get a book or some…"

"You're the world worst liar," Blossom interrupted him, she was already feeling a lot better for having this out in the open, "you even worse then Sonic. If you have a reason, tell me."

"Okay, easy," Eddy replied defensively, "it's not easy admitting that it's your fault…"

"Your fault?" this rather took Blossom a back. "You mean, you don't' think it's anything to do with my lack of powers?"

"Not really no." There was a long pause.

"Well?" asked Blossom, more gently this time. "What's wrong with you?" Eddy looked at the end of the bed hard.

"Have you ever been out with someone, and felt that they'd rather be with someone else," he asked. When Blossom didn't respond immediately, he carried on. "The kids told me you kissed Brick." Blossom stared at him.

"They did?" she asked nervously. Eddy nodded.

"You need not explain," he said flatly, still looking not looking at her. "I understand how you feel about him. It just… hurt to have it shoved in my face."

Blossom thought for a moment. She'd only ever thought about that kiss as a tragedy for her, as a last moment of contact with Brick before he was taken from her for ever. It had never occurred to her how Eddy would feel if he found out. "Do you still love me?" she asked eventually. While the questions were blunt, she might as well.

Now it was Eddy's turn to be perplexed. Sure, when he'd first heard what had happened he wondered, but not for very long. To be asked the question put him in a bit of a quandary. Eddy had always assumed that he loved Blossom more then anything. She'd given his life purpose joy and two wonderful children, and in return he'd given her the support and stability that someone with as many mental problems she'd had at the time needed. But did that amount to love, or was it that they'd just both needed each other at the same time, a bit like a business deal. Was there marriage nothing more then one of convenience? Eddy now found himself looking at Blossom. Four years without her powers had taken there toll; she was greying in places, and a few wrinkles were beginning to develop on her face. To Eddy though, she was still as stunningly beautiful as when they'd first met. Yet despite the twenty years of marriage, some of her still seemed off limits to him, as if it was just for Brick. The bastard had always been there, haunting him, making him feel that he wasn't worth Blossom. Perhaps he wasn't, but for the first time ever, he wondered why he'd never tried.

It had been along time now since Blossom had asked her question. "Eddy?" she tried. Her husband looked at her, and then placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Hang on," he said, "I've got an answer." And then he kissed her. Properly. When they finally broken off, Blossom was struggling to breath.

"You've never kissed me like THAT before," she gasped, "not even on our wedding night!" Eddy shrugged, and looked back at his feet.

"That's all I have," he said mournfully. "I thought that it would compare too badly with Brick's best."

"You men and your egos," Blossom giggled. "I'm sure that was closer then you think." Eddy looked up.

"Really?" he said, lifted slightly.

"Actually, I'm not sure," Blossom replied thoughtfully, "better give it one more go, just to make sure."

* * *

Edward was sitting up in bed, reading the latest copy of Autosport when he heard a noise. "Oh no," he groaned, "I thought they'd given up!"

* * *

Elsewhere, Sonic had also been disturbed. He lived in his office at the SSR, which was normally a good way of getting an undisturbed night's sleep, but tonight he had been woken and dragged out of bed and down stairs by Gohan.

"This better be important!" he groaned, as he thudded into the lab.

"It is, it is!" Gohan said excitedly, "I've been looking into that puff pregnancy problem again, and look what I've found!" He shoved the document in Sonic's face. The Hedgehog, who'd always taken an interest in the Puffs due to his fear of the Chaos energy they ran on, was only too happy to look.

"Five years?" he mused. "Well that would explain a lot."

"Yes, it's a major break though," Gohan said, "and I've solved the energy problem too, any kid they have now will get powers. Should I tell them the good ne… err, don't look at that…"

Sonic had picked up another piece of paper on the desk, and skimmed it, with a scowl on his face. Gohan winced as Sonic finished. "Yes," said the Hedgehog, "you may tell them they can try for a kid because it won't grow up to be a runt. But if you tell them the five years bit, I will make your life worse then that of the Bandicoot that married my daughter, okay?" he handed him back the sheet. "And destroy this, got it? Good!"

Okay, thanks for reading. Next chapter up soon I hope.


	4. The last Day of Normality

Okay, sorry for the delay, I was going to update on Friday, but I had an end of term Christmas party instead, so sort of lost the weekend. Anyway, I'm back now, so let's get on with it.

**3. The Last Day of Normality**

Saturday morning dawned. The light was crisp yet unremarkable, the air cool but refreshing, and the clouds were light and fluffy. The multitudes of birds were singing enthusiastically, filling the morning world with glorious music.

"Isn't it wonderful," Eddy said wistfully to no one in particular. The only other people able to share in his sentiment were Edward and MJ, but having been dragged out of bed at seven o' clock on the last Saturday of their summer holiday, they weren't really in the mood.

"How can anything be wonderful at this time in the morning," asked Edward grumpily, as MJ stirred her Breakfast distractedly, searching the fatty glop for a piece of meat she could dig into.

"It just is," replied Eddy in a far away voice, before dropping into his usual tone. "You've got lazy not having to go to school for however many weeks." Edward didn't have a reply to that for once, so he just tucked in to his food. Presently Blossom arrived downstairs, looking on top form considering the time.

"Good morning kids!" she said with unnerving enthusiasm. "Isn't it a wonderful day?"

"It sure is," replied Eddy before just before MJ could jump in with the same reply as Eddy had given a moment ago – a typical method younger sibling's use to try and look clever. The two adults put there arms round each other and stared out of the window for a moment, seemingly in total bliss.

Edward watched them for a moment and then smashed his head on the table, but even this typical over-the-top teenagery reaction didn't get a response. MJ leaned over, while Edward rubbed his head (such acts used to hurt less.)

"Are they okay?" she whispered, sounding worried. Edward rolled his eyes.

"They're fine," he responded. "It's just that they've found themselves."

"Oh." MJ sat there for a moment, looking at her breakfast. "Where?"

* * *

Butch smacked the alarm clock on the head once more to shut it up. It was eight now, and he stared miserably at the screen that displayed this fact. Work started at nine, but Eddy was usually late, so that meant it was more like nine fifteen. But that didn't change the fact that he needed to get up. Obviously, as he lay there in the warm soft sheets, this was the last thing he wanted to do. So instead, he rolled over again, and waited for the snooze function to wake him in ten minutes time.

However, upon rolling, he discovered that the other side of the bed was now empty. Concerned, Butch just about managed to sit up in bed, to see if Buttercup had fallen out. No, that wasn't it. He yawned and stretched while trying to work through his insane morning mind the necessary functions to get him out of bed. He got about as far as beginning to move his right leg, when Buttercup returned, looking excited yet nervous.

"I just got a phone call from the Professor on the behalf of Gohan," she said, her tone portraying the same emotions.

"Gohan?" asked Butch sleepily. "Oh yeah… he's the… thing that works with... you know who..." he managed between yawns.

"Well that's one way of putting it," muttered Buttercup. "Anyway, he says there's no problem with us trying for a baby again." Butch's tiredness vanished instantly.

"What? Really?" Buttercup nodded.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Me? Of course," Butch said far too quickly, standing up at the same time, and taking Buttercup into a close hug. "I mean, this is what we've always wanted, and we could do with a brother or sister for SP."

"That's me!" came a distant call, and SP bounded into the room at full speed as if she'd been called. The sprint ended with a slip and slide into a chest of draws in the corner of the room, and SP landed gracelessly on her bottom, rubbing her head. Buttercup chuckled slightly and released Butch to help her daughter up.

"Now what have I told you about running in the house Sandra?" she asked as she scoped SP up.

"Err… don't do it?" sniffed Sandra Patricia in response rubbing her head. This was the civilian name that had been assigned to the child, mainly for administrative purposes, as Mojo's SP had just been a code. Butch wondered idly where they'd got the name from. _(I got it form my faithful reviewer Sith-Knight-Galen, SP having a civilian name was his idea too, so thanks for that – mg56)_ "It hurts Mum!" SP continued, rubbing her head hard.

"Aww, let me kiss it better," said Butch. He leaned in and kissed SP on the forehead, causing her to giggle. Butch laughed, and then glanced at his wrist. "Good grief is that the time, I better be going." He kissed Buttercup on the check and hurried out. Buttercup watched him go, while Sandra thought about something for a moment.

"Daddy must be very clever to tell the time without a watch," she mused innocently.

* * *

As much as Blossom would have liked to stay at home with Eddy and the kids, they all had things to do. Eddy was off to work, while she was staring at one of those days at the end of the holidays when you need to do everything you haven't spent the rest of the summer doing. Basically, Edward and MJ needed new school uniform, shoes, hair cuts and stationery. And just to complicate things, MJ was due at the dentists…

"She's a little bit unusual," Blossom said nervously, as MJ was swung back on the chair. The dentist laughed (as only a dentist can.)

"Don't worry Mrs Panner," he reassured, "I remember all my patient's mouths and especially this one. Open up Mary Jane."

MJ did so with a suspicious look on her face. The dentist put his mirror inside, being careful to not to dip it in the acid swimming around inside. He tutted quietly to himself (also, as only a dentist can.) "Now," he said firmly, "it makes no difference that you mouth is full of acid anyway, you need to brush the back of you fangs better. Alright?"

"Yes sir," muttered MJ.

"You don't want them falling out, do you?" he asked. MJ shook her head. "Right then; Brush." He turned his back and walked over to the counter, so MJ went to get out, assuming she was done. She wasn't. This was the part of the day that Blossom was looking forward to the least.

"Your braces are hear MJ," the dentist said calmly, turning around to show her the "train tracks." MJ jumped.

"Already?" she gurgled. "But, I mean…"

"The company got them ready quicker then we thought," the dentist said cheerfully. "Now, remember, there gold coated to avoid your acid corroding them, so be careful, right."

MJ nodded fearfully, as the dentist approached to fix them to her mouth, while Blossom considered the worst part of Monday; explaining to Sonic the massive increase in the cost of the company dental plan.

* * *

Eddy kicked the side of the car. "Everything okay down there?" he called. Butch slid out from underneath, lying as he was on a skateboard.

"Nope, it's knackered," he replied with typical bluntness. "We're going to need a new sump."

"And a new rear axle down here," hollered Ed from the other end. Eddy sighed.

"Okay, Ed, you run out back and see if we have another Chevy of this type lying around we can scavenge from.

"Sure thing boss," replied Ed, before he ran out with typical enthusiasm. Eddy just hoped he'd come back with something close to what they needed for once. Butch was about to side back underneath the car, but Eddy jammed his foot in the wheels of the board to stop him.

"Hang on, I want a word with you," he said. Butch shrugged, and got up from the floor.

"What about," he asked. "If it's about the Ford pick up that lost a wheel on the test drive yesterday, I can explain…"

"No it's not that," said Eddy making a mental note to ask about that latter. "A little bird tells me that you and Buttercup are having a few marital issues."

"I'd never describe Blossom as little." Butch started cleaning his oily hands with a near by rag – a futile activity since the rag was dirtier then his hands. Eddy watched him for a moment.

"If there's a problem you can tell me," he said as calmly as he could. "It can't be anymore embarrassing then the time you couldn't do it for a month because you caught it in the…"

"Alright I'll talk!" Butch interrupted before Eddy brought up that painful memory again. "Yes, we… well I do have a few problems."

There was a pause. "With?" prompted Eddy.

Butch sighed. There was no point beating around the bush with Eddy; he was the one that had managed to convince him to listen to him while he was drunk hours after breaking up with Buttercup on the eve of there wedding. He'd fixed it too…

"She wants to start trying for a baby again," Butch managed.

"Well, don't you?"

"Not if it means failure," replied the Green ruff instantly. "The endless weekend ritual of looking at the pregnancy test and knowing that I've failed in my duty as a husband… again. He kicked a near by bucket hard, which flew into a wall, and bent. "I hate it!" he finished.

"Feel any better for saying that?" Eddy asked.

"No."

"Ah." There was a pause. "It won't be as bad this time," assured Eddy. "Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because you already have SP," Eddy continued, "so there isn't so much pressure. It was like that with me and Blossom with MJ."

"Really?"

Yeah, do you think the five year gap in ages was intentional? We were trying for a second pretty much as soon as Edward had been born." Eddy thought for a moment. "If it hadn't taken us so long to get MJ we might have had a third. Anyway, we really got lucky with Edward. We'd only been trying for two months. But back on to you, think about this; rather then worrying about how sad she'll be if you fail, imagine how happy you'll be when you succeed." Butch pictured in his head the image of Buttercup from the day she'd been confirmed as pregnant with Brandy. A smile crept across his face, and Eddy leapt on it. "Until then," he continued, "what more can a man do for a women then be there for her?"

Before Butch could respond, Double D opened the door. "There are some people here wanting to see the manager," he said worriedly. Eddy cursed.

"Alright, I'll be out in a moment," he said, before turning back to Butch. "Think about it," he said, and he hurried out.

* * *

Bubbles was waiting to go on stage when her mobile rang. Normally, she'd have had it turned of by now, but today Boomer was with the police on a drugs raid, something that always made her nervous now he was just as vulnerable as the rest of them. Still, the ring tone told her it wasn't Boomer, or any off his colleagues.

"Hay Bloss," she said informally as she snatched up the phone, "where are you?"

"I'm in the car on the hands free," her sister replied, "I've got the kids with me too, so you're on speaker phone."

"Right," Bubbles continued Chipley, "so we can't talk about how annoying they are." This comment got the irritated response from the kids she was expecting, but it was taken in good humour. "Where you taking them, somewhere nice?"

"Oh they wish," laughed Blossom. "We're going to the mall to by shoes and clothes etc. But if there good I might take them somewhere nice for dinner."

"Ah, another exciting day," Bubbles laughed. She never ribbed Blossom too hard though. The blue puff was just grateful that one of her sisters had forgiven her.

"Yep," said Blossom instantly, "but in a strange way, I sort of enjoy this stuff, if I'm in the right kind of mood. But enough about me, you ready for your speech."

"Sure am, I'm on in five."

"I must say," Blossom said (predictably) "that it never occurred to me that I'd never know someone in politics again, not after the Mayor got sent down for massive electoral fraud."

"Please Blossom, I'm running for congress, no for Mayor. Besides, my campaign team has been working hard to hush that all up. And you better not do anything to get yourself in the tabloids either," she said with just a hint of seriousness.

"You're really relying on them aren't you," Blossom said.

"Of course I am," Bubbles responded. "All the broadsheets ever say is "she doesn't have enough experience." So what? I fight a good fight and I've done more for this country then they ever have. Besides, I've got a good team of advisers, so what's the problem?"

"None what so ever. You've got my vote."

"Don't lie Blossom I know you vote democrat. Anyway, I need to go; my political advisor's having a fit."

"Alright, good luck Bubbles," and the phone went dead.

* * *

The customer's problem had necessitated eddy to make a trip home for some paper work that he'd left there. Somewhere. Eddy glanced at his watch; it was three o'clock now, and he still hadn't found it. No one else was home yet, and the house felt big and empty, as if it had an unreasonable amount of hiding places for a small sheet of paper. "Dam it!" Eddy muttered, but he was then interrupted by the door bell.

He wasn't supposed to be at home, so Eddy ignored it initially, but when it rang three more five more times, he went to answer.

"How the hell do they know I'm in," he muttered. He got an answer as soon as he opened the door, and as far as Eddy was concerned, it was the worst possible answer.

Brick was leaning coolly on the door frame, as if he didn't have a care in the world. He turned to look at Eddy slowly, whose mouth was nearly on the fall. "Well, aren't you going to invite me it?" he asked. "I could do with a cup of tea."

Okay, thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions please make them, as I will quite probably (as with SP's name) be listening. Thanks for reading.


	5. Eddy's Final Over

**4. Eddy's Final Over?**

It took Eddy a while to find his voice. "This is a joke right?" he flustered. "I mean… you're dead, and in Hell." He looked around wildly, as Brick stayed fixed in his relaxed position. "Ha-ha! Very funny!" Eddy laughed desperately.

Brick looked at him derisively. Then he held out his hands to show Eddy his wrists. "Put your fingers here and look at my hands. Do you see the holes? Stop doubting and believe!" Then he hooted with laughter.

Eddy didn't. "How long did you spend practising that one?" he snapped.

Brick put his hands back by his sides. "I take it you are not pleased to see me?" Eddy noticed his existence once more.

"No," he said firmly. "Get out of here. Now!"

Brick's laugh went on for a long time. "Now, how many times do you think I've heard that? Seriously, guess, because I don't really know," he put his hands on either side of the door frame and leant in, "I never listened long enough."

Eddy considered punching him, but then thought better of it. "I… Blossom's my wife…" he began.

"For now," Brick replied, exuding all the confidence Eddy didn't have. "But don't worry Eddy, if you play by the rules, I think you'll find me quite reasonable."

"Who's rules?" Eddy spat. Brick wagged a finger wryly.

"Mine, and don't back chat or I'll have to be harsher on you." He smiled for a moment, with teeth Tony Blair would be proud of. "Right, first, I'm going to be nice. In a few minutes, I'm going to go. And I'll be back, here, in exactly 24 hours. Blossom won't have a clue I've been here, so I'm giving you one more day."

"Yes, that's very generous of you, I will be eternally grateful," said Eddy, not entirely sarcastically.

"In return," Brick replied, "I want you out. No fuss, no arguing. Just go. Now let me see, I'll want the house – signed over completely to me, for nothing – and one of the cars; probably the bigger one. Added on to that one thousand dollars a month to cover the cost of the kids, and you can see them once every two weeks – but not just for the weekends, you need to do some of the boring things too. Right, I think that's about it."

"Aren't most of those a matter for me and my wife!" Eddy retorted, trying to get a foothold in the conversation.

"Yes maybe, but you'll accept my solution, because the alternative is a long protracted court battle, and I reckon you'll be in too much pain for that."

"And what if I'm not?"

"Then I'll make sure you are," replied Brick, brandishing a fist. "Come on Eddy, what would you prefer? Me to throw you out, or Blossom to throw you out?" He put his arm on Eddy's shoulder. "It's for the best this way."

"Don't touch me," Eddy said coldly. Brick did so, but he seemingly was not bothered.

"See you tomorrow," he said calmly, and with a smug smile, he drifted effortlessly into the air, and away.

Eddy watched him for a moment, and then slammed the door as hard as he could. The sound of smashing glass echoed in from one corner of the lounge. Eddy wondered over, to see what it was. A family picture had fallen off the wall. "Fucking metaphors," Eddy stormed, and he kicked the wall hard.

* * *

Buttercup was sitting at home, watching the television. Moaning about it mainly. "I can't believe you Bubbles," she said, "I mean you don't know the first thing about the economy, how can you claim it would be better in you're hands. That's just an old republican line!"

SP, who had been occupied by trying to catch a cup in a ball (having not entirely got the idea of the contraption,) looked up. "I don't think she can hear you," she said, slightly confused.

"I know that," said Buttercup exasperatedly, "I was just…" she stared at her daughter's blank expression. "Never mind," she finished, and turned back to watching the speech.  
Not long latter, there was the familiar sound of someone putting keys in the door. Buttercup looked round to see Butch returning home. He smiled distantly, as SP back-flipped from the floor to her feet and ran over to him. "Daddy!" she cried. Butch swept her up again.

"Hello Sandra," said Butch (who used the name more affectionately then Buttercup,) mussing her hair, "how was your day?"

"Great!" she replied with (appropriate) child like affection. "Mum broke someone's jaw at the Marital Arts class, and I got to help put out the crash mat!"

"Really, how nice," Butch replied, wondering what the guy had done to upset Buttercup. "Say, why don't you go upstairs and tidy you room until super, it was a bit of a tip last time I looked in."

"Okay," replied SP without questioning, and with a quick kiss on the cheek she ran off upstairs. Butch wandered into the lounge, and sat on the sofa next to his wife.

"Watching the speech are we?" he said. Buttercup looked at him intently. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was different.

"Yeah," she said, pressing the mute button on the remote. "How was your day?"

"Fine," said Butch simply, "Eddy went missing for the second half of it, so we had to close early." He smiled. "Which is fortunate, because I'm ready."

"Ready? For what?" asked Buttercup. Butch's response was a simple kiss on the lips that quickly evolved into something more powerful. Butch grabbed buttercup around the waist, and pulled her right up to him, a move that she didn't resist.

It was at this tender moment that the door bell rang. The two green's ignored it as they got down to business, which only caused it to ring again.

"We're closed," mumbled Butch as he briefly came up for air, which got a girly laugh from Buttercup which she'd deny later.

Unfortunately, as is the way with life, they were interrupted by a pattering on the stairs and a call of "I'll get it," from a kid that thought she was being useful. Butch and Buttercup separated them selves rapidly, but not rapidly enough to stop SP from opening the door.

"I really hope it's just the mail man or something," groaned Butch – the wrong type of groaning as far as he was concerned. Buttercup nodded, as SP entered the room, looking slightly concerned.

"There's a man who looks like aunty Blossom at the door looking for someone called Butch?" she said. "What should I…" but she got no further, for Butch and Buttercup were already on there feet, and scrambling for the door. When they got there, Butch's heart nearly failed.

"What the… Brick?" he stuttered. His brother smiled.

"The one and only," he replied. "Can you spare a brother a bed for the night?"

* * *

Back at the Panner house-hold, Eddy had just finished cleaning up the glass (a job that had taken hours because his mind had been on a foreign planet) when Blossom and the kids finally arrived home. Well, to be absolutely correct, a tower of shopping bags arrived home with Blossom and the kids somewhere around them.

"Do we really need all this stuff," said Edward as he staggered in. "I mean, its not as if I have to walk through a paint ball range to get to school."

"You won't be saying that in two weeks once you've been playing football with your friends every lunchtime," Blossom sniffed; but the sniff was soon followed be a sneeze.

"Are you alright Mum?" asked MJ, who was keen to direct the conversation away from school – and friends.

"No," she replied, snorting badly in an effort to clear her sinuses, "I think I've caught something from that woman at the dentist's. Dam it." She handed the bags to Eddy, who'd arrived to greet them yet had been unable to say anything yet. "Can you take these dear? I need a warm bath and an early night."

"Sure," replied Eddy despondently. Blossom didn't miss it.

"You alright?" she asked, before sneezing again.

"Better then you," Eddy lied, "I'll get these bags upstairs, and then we'll get you fixed up."

* * *

And that was it. Eddy spent the rest of the evening trying to arrange the kids super, getting Blossom cold cure and putting shopping away. Considering his two major disadvantages (the distraction from Brick and being male) he did an alright job – which meant that Edward was stopped finding MJ's skirts in his clothes draws after only two weeks, and all of the items acquired on the shopping trip were seen again before they moved house. But still, sitting in front of the television watching some terrible comedy on fox that the kids seemed to like with Blossom only wanting to be cuddled for warmth was not what Eddy would have pictured his last night with his family to be. He was sure that tomorrow, Blossom would find the energy for Brick, even if she was dying.

It occurred to him though, that the sex wasn't the only thing he was going to miss. If he really wanted sex he could pay for it. But there was no where you go to pay for breakfast with your loved ones. He was never going to be woken up by Blossom tending to MJ's nightmares again, or her alarm clock going off for one of Sonic's ridiculous early morning patrols. He wouldn't be there to pick her up after a bad day, or her for him. He'd never get to see her "this food looks like you vomited it on to the plate but I'm going to eat it because I love you" look on her face again. He wouldn't be waiting at home after Edward's first date, or to scold MJ in the morning the first time she came home drunk. They wouldn't need him anymore because they'd have someone else instead.

The night was a sleepless mess of nightmares about Brick's return interrupted by the snoring induced by Blossom's cold. Come five in the morning, Eddy decided he could see no more. He rolled over, and glanced at Blossom sleeping, for what could be the last time. It wasn't her most flattering pose; there was a tissue stuffed up her nose to stop the mucus draining out, and her mouth was wide open, thus creating a small pile of drool on the pillow. To Eddy she still look beautiful, but he supposed the same would apply to Brick.

Bastard, Eddy thought. I don't know what he has planned, but if he thinks I'm just going to let him walk in during the middle of a normal Sunday, and take my wife and kids away from me with nothing more then a smile and flex of his muscles, before throwing me out with nothing more then my clothes and paperwork, he's got another thing coming.

He sat up in bed and shook Blossom gently. "Blossom? You awake?"

"Ageaga," murmured Blossom as she struggled in to consciousness.

"I was just thinking," Eddy said, smiling as he did, "were the kids well behaved yesterday?"

Blossom thought for a moment. "Considering the length of the trip, yes they were exemplary. I was very proud."

"Okay, because I've changed my mind, I will take Edward to that kart race today." Blossom leaned over and looked at the alarm clock.

"You better get going then," she said, rolling over to go back to sleep. "Don't take offence if I don't wait up for you."

"That's fine," said Eddy. "I'll take MJ too, let you rest properly." Blossom nodded briefly before dropping back to sleep again.

Edward didn't need asking twice, and MJ was happy to be doing something other then thinking about school too, so it wasn't long until the go-kart, spares and tyres were loaded in the boat. Eddy paused for a moment, as the kids buckled up, and looked at the house once more, at his – and Blossom's – bedroom window. "I love you," he muttered, before getting in and starting the engine. At least this way, he got to extend the time the kids had him as there Dad, even if it did free Brick and Blossom up to do some early afternoon screwing…

Okay, thanks for reading. I'll try and squeeze one more chapter in before the Christmas slow down on Friday, okay? Thanks.


	6. We're on the Road to Cardiff

Okay, before we begin this chapter, I would like to a.) apologise for all the motor racing bits in this one, b.) state that the company in this chapter is not based off a real one, however much it may seem and c.) that if you don't believe me, then I can't back up any of my accusations with fact. Okay, lets go.

**5. We're on the Road to Cardiff**

Since his arrival at the house of his stunned Brother, Brick had been talking almost non-stop to Butch. It hadn't been the deepest discussion in the world – they'd mainly talked about all the sport Brick had missed – but still, it had surprised Buttercup. She'd had no idea that they were this close, but the two ruffs had gone on for hours like two children who'd been apart for a few months and were relived to find that nothing had changed. What also surprised her is that she hadn't minded.

As the morning progressed into the afternoon, Brick eventually decided it was time to move. "It's been great to see you Butch," he began, stretching as he did, "but I have business to attend to." As he stood up Butch did to.

"Yeah, it has been good," he said tautly. Then, after casting a awkward look over to Buttercup, he gave up and gave Brick a quick hug. "I've missed you," he said – after it had finished.

"I'm sure your not the only one," Brick laughed, before turning to Buttercup. "Thanks for the hospitality Butters," he said jovially, "but from now on I will being enjoying your sister's."

Buttercup smiled. "Good luck Brick, although I don't think you'll need it," she said, "Unless you call me Butters again, in which case no amount of luck will save you."

"Point taken," replied Brick quickly, and with one more round of goodbyes he was off out the door.

Buttercup turned to Butch. "Trust him to keep his powers," she muttered, before noticing something. "You alright?"

Butch – who had been looking at his feet, glanced up at her. "Oh yes I'm fine," he replied rapidly. "I just feel a bit guilt that I couldn't tell Boomer that he was back."

"You can't tell Boomer anything that's supposed to be a secret," Buttercup sniffed, "in case Bubbles gets to him. Bitch."

"Yes, it will be nice to be able to see Boomer without us feeling that we're betraying our wives," Butch retorted immediately.

"Not as nice as it will be to see Blossom with a proper man," Buttercup interrupted. "It will do the kids some… you sure your alright?"

Butch, who was looking worried again, thought surprisingly quickly. "Yes," he said, "I was just a bit put off by the amount of emphasis you put on the real man part," he said. Buttercup laughed, and Butch put an arm around her. However; "Do you really think that she'll leave the kids and Eddy that easily? I mean, they are married, and they seem quite happy."

"Of course she will!" said Buttercup immediately. "Even Blossom's not stupid enough to stay with someone that can't full fill her when someone better comes along."

"Oh, great" said Butch, but without feeling. He was busy staring at his wedding ring.

* * *

Blossom felt shit. There was no other was of explaining the fact that it was four in the afternoon and she was still in bed. This would never happen with my powers, she thought. I hope they come back soon.

She got out of bed momentarily to get some cold cure, when the door bell rang. Blossom wasn't really in the mood, or condition to see anyone at the moment, so she decided ignore it. Also, being more resilient then Eddy had been only twenty four hours ago, she kept on ignoring it, and after taking the pills, went back to bed.

Moments latter there was a tap on the window. Blossom jumped and looked up quicker then her brain could register that no one should be knocking there. This thought was soon lost in who she saw.

"Brick?" she whispered. "I must be worse then I thought, I'm hallucinating!" Brick knocked on the widow again, and this time Blossom scrambled out of bed and pushed open the window. "Brick, is that really you," she asked.

"Yep," Brick replied, having forgotten all the cool things he was intending to say. "I… you… err… hi. Can I come in?"

"Sure," said Blossom, who was still certain this was a dream.

Brick did. "You look…"

"Awful," interrupted Blossom immediately, who was now almost hoping it was a dream considering her condition – i.e. no make-up, unwashed hair etc.

"Never," Brick replied immediately. "If anything you look better then I remember…" he tailed off for a moment, and then put his hand on her side. Blossom felt its firm, warming touch, and felt like crying. He was here…

But instead she sneezed. Brick caught her head, as it trusted forward. "Easy there," he laughed. Blossom sniffled quietly.

"I… never thought this moment would come," she whispered to him, "and now when it does, I go and ruin it with a cold." Brick chuckled and shook his head.

"You see, this is the difference between men and women; the women have a much higher standard of "perfect." For me, this is perfect already, but if it's a cold ruining it for you, then let me help."

He kissed her on the nose (well, where the nose should reside) in a way that caused it to quickly slip down to her lips. Blossom felt her cold disappearing instantly, along with her mind. For now Brick was back, and as she grabbed his face that was all that mattered.

* * *

In comparison, Eddy was currently standing on a piece of cold tarmac in the middle of a muddy field one state away. But at the moment, he was allowing him self the pleasure of ignoring the fact that the time Brick had said he would be back for two reasons. One, this had turned out to be the massively important kart race meeting Edward had made it out to be, and two; his son had just white washed the field.

Well his son for another few hours at least, but he tried not to think about that. "Way to go son!" he called over the crowd of people with nothing better to do then watch unimportant motor racing on the last Sunday of summer, (so that includes the author then), as Edward received his trophy on the podium. MJ, sitting on his dads shoulders, was whooping loudly too – it was great to see two kids so happy, especially on this final day.

In fact MJ was cheering (and chewing on the remains of the pigeon she'd caught) so loudly that Eddy missed what some one said to him.

"Pardon," he said, turning to his left to be confronted by a group to suits. The front man however, was at least trying to look stylish.

"Are you the father of that child? Mr. Panner is it?" he asked in a slightly exaggerated west coast accent.

"Err, yes that's me," replied Eddy putting MJ down. "Who might you be?"

"I'm Mr. Belling of the Red Ball Drinks Corporation," said Mr. Belling, sticking out a hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Red Ball?" mumbled Eddy as he shook the man's hand. "Oh yes, you make that ridiculously successful caffeine drink that's banning in France because it's worse for you then drowning."

"Yes," replied Belling without contradicting Eddy's claims, "but not only that we are also one of the world's biggest Motorsports backers. We sponsor teams in NASCAR, GP2, Formula 3, Formula Renault, the FIA GT Championship and own two Formula One teams, Red Ball Racing and Scuderia Palla Rosso."

"Wow, that's a lot," said MJ wide eyed. "Why don't we make caffeine drinks that are almost toxic Dad?"

"Err, quite dear," said Eddy gently before turning back to Mr. Belling. "Okay, so what do you want with me?"

"Me and my men have been watching your son racing, and we've decided that he could make a brilliant addition to our driver development program."

"Really?" Eddy gasped, "You mean you think he's good enough?"

"Certainly, he had fantastic marketing potential. Good looks, nice accent, is he a bit of a rebel?"

"He can be if you want him to," Eddy said quickly.

"Good, and his mum's that super hero right? I mean he's almost a perfect marketing tool for our company."

"And he's a fast driver," added MJ. Mr. Belling blinked.

"Oh, yes, probably, but that doesn't really matter - the modern formula cars have so many drive aids even a monkey could drive them fast. Marketability is more important."

"Whoa," interrupted Eddy, "Formula one?"

"Yes, the drive development program would hopefully take your son up through the junior formulae to the "Pinnacle" of motor sport in about four, five years, with us paying for the lot in return for him committing to marketing our product."

"Yes, but he doesn't want to do Formula One," replied Eddy nervously, "he has his heart set on Rallying, you know, the off road stuff."

Mr. Belling thought for a moment. "Excuse me just a second," he said, and he and his goons went into a huddle. Presently they emerged again.

"Mr. Panner, it just so happens that we do have a Rally program just beginning to take off, that we could put your Son on…"

"Really, that's great!"

"But," Mr. Belling said firmly, "apparently, Rallying actually requires skill – although not as much as it used to. So we're having a young driver shoot out to see who deserves a place. Do you think your Son can do it?"

With a little preparation, Eddy had no doubt. "Yes, defiantly."

"Great, meet me at the motor home over there in half an hour, and I'll talk to your son for a bit and then we'll get your plane tickets to Cardiff. You'll leave tonight."

"Cardiff…" mused Eddy, but MJ got there before he did.

"That's in Wales!" she stuttered.

"Yes, well most rallying is in Europe," replied Mr. Belling. "See you in thirty minutes!" And he walked off. MJ turned to her Dad.

"Mum's not going to like this."

"What?" asked Eddy, who had been thinking about what a fantastic opportunity this was to extend his time with the kids.

"You taking Edward to a foreign country when he should be going to school."

"Yes…" said Eddy, although he had a sneaking suspicion Brick might be delighted, especially since there wasn't time to take MJ home before the flight, so she's have to come too. Before he could tell MJ this, Edward came running over, the stupidly huge trophy tucked under his arm. "What's going on?" he asked? Eddy told him.

* * *

Blossom was brought back to reality (sans top) by the phone ringing, with the tone that suggested it was Eddy's mobile. With instant guilt, she reached past Brick and grabbed it. "Hello?" she said.

"Hi Mum!" came the unbelievably excited voice on the other side, "you'll never guess what?" Blossom struggled for a moment.

"That you Edward?" she said, after pushing Brick off her for the moment (which didn't stop him from caressing her.)

"Yeah, I impressed some people from Red Ball, so their taking me to test a rally car in Wales, and I might even get a full drive!"

"What, now?"

"Yep, isn't that fantastic!"

"Oh it's brilliant," Blossom replied, trying to ignore Brick for a moment (which was hard enough.) "I'm really proud of you."

"That's good Blossom," murmured Brick, "now let's get back to business."

"What was that?" asked Edward.

"Err, just the television," said Blossom hurriedly.

"Okay, Dad wants to talk to you for a moment, so I'll put him on." There was a pause, in which Blossom tried to shush Brick before;

"Hello Blossom?"

"Hi Eddy, that's good work there," said Blossom in as much of an everything's-normal-and-I'm-not-having-an-affair tone of voice as possible.

"I know, it's great! But me and both kids have got to go to Wales now, so are you going to be okay on your own?"

Somehow, Blossom suspected something. "Yes, I'll be fine," she said. "You concentrate on getting our little superstar into his dream career."

"Okay then," Eddy replied, "I will. I love you, and I'll be back soon, so keep the bed warm for me."

"Yes, okay. Love you too," Blossom said almost automatically. But only almost.

"Oh, by the way, I won't be able to call you from Britain because the mobile won't work, so I'll speak to you Tuesday." And the phone went dead.

Brick leant over to Blossom, who was sitting stock still. "Ah, so he won't be bothering us for a while, will he?" He kissed Blossom on the neck.

Blossom reciprocated, before asking, "Did Eddy know you were coming here?"

"No," lied Brick, "why?"

"Nothing, just being paranoid." Blossom tried to ignore the ideas running through her head that were mostly about Eddy taking the kids to Britain and not coming back. She kissed Brick once more, and then stood up. "You know, I really ort to get you to the SSR and checked out. I mean you've just come back from the dead, and the rules relating to that sort of thing are fairly strict."

"I'll do anything if you kiss me again," Brick said. So she did.

* * *

Okay, the plots now beginning to hit its stride, just in time for the end of semester. I have no idea what my home internet connection is doing, so although I'll try to update before January, I'm not going to promise. So just in case, thanks for reading, and

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Mg56.


	7. Dirty Tricks

Right, okay. Sorry it's been such a long time since the last update, I had no internet connection and lots of exams coming up, so thinks got a bit slow. Anyway, I'll try and pick up the pace a bit.

**6. Dirty Tricks**

The SSR's science department is one of its most valuable assets. In the pursuit of world saving and crime fighting, it has come up with some ingenious solutions to basic problems, and also provided much research data, especially in the area of genetics. Even the most aggressive critics of the idea of a government agency running all the superhuman activity in the country would have to cede that is had been a positive aspect of the organisation.

Of course it helps that it is staffed by some very able people, like Professor Utonium, Reed Richards, Peter Parker when he's otherwise unemployed, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner (on projects that aren't particular stressful) and of course Gohan, son of Goku. Gohan is the sort of person who typifies the scientific wing of the SSR; the sort of person that would rather spend his Sunday afternoon studying a former super villain that had returned from the dead over cleaning up from his families roast lunch (that might be another British thing.) So today he was in luck.

"Okay, and say ah!" the half Saiyan instructed. Brick, who was sitting on a bench in nothing but underpants, did so, allowing Gohan to check his insides. Blossom, watching, found most of this amusing, although there was something distracting about her almost naked "boyfriend." They hadn't quite got as far as sex earlier, although they'd been well on the way, but if Blossom could have, she would have pushed Gohan out of the way right now. Two things held her back; firstly the inescapable thoughts of Eddy and the kids, who'd shortly be jetting off to Heathrow, none the wiser (or so she thought). Blossom didn't know if she could do this behind there backs. The second reason was that Gohan was stronger then her, even if she had had her powers.

"Shut," instructed Gohan, and Brick did. "Right," mused Gohan, scratching his head, "I can't explain how he's back, but this is defiantly the real, unaltered and uncloned Brick. No super villain or demonic plot here that's for sure."

"So Sonic can have no problem," Blossom replied confidently.

"Yes," said Gohan, "but I'll do a report on it so that we have it in writing. It's quite exciting really!"

"Your telling me," chuckled Brick, smiling at Blossom copiously. Blossom giggled, but Gohan missed it.

"I mean that since Brick's here with his powers, it means there is a stable point of Chaos energy in the universe. My calculations show if there were just two more points of stability, all the Chaos energy would stabilise, and everyone's powers would return!"

"I see," lied Blossom, "well thanks for that Gohan."

"No problem, you may go now," Brick got up to leave, "except that all my patients get a lolly-pop if there well behaved."

Brick looked down at the red sticky sweet Gohan had trust at him. "Thanks," he said slightly uncertainly, before leaving. "He's a nice guy," The red Ruff continued once they were outside.

"Yes," replied Blossom thoughtfully, "he's got a good body too." Brick jumped for a moment before settling down.

"I missed you messing with me," he smiled, putting his arm around her.

"What makes you thing I'm messing," Blossom said instantly. Brick laughed.

"Because I could see who you were looking at during that whole examination." He puffed out his chest to emphasise the point. "Anyway, before we go, I want to see your office, prove to me you're now a "bigwig" in superheroing."

The two "reds" had nearly reached Blossom's office, in fact they had reached the door, when they were stopped by a cry of "THERE HE IS!!" Blossom and Brick glanced up at the otherwise empty SSR corridor to see Boomer sprinting towards them with Butch in tow. Brick barely had time to prepare himself, before he was bundled. "I've missed you so much bro," Boomer almost cried, while knuckle dusting his brother's head.

"Hey cut that out Boomer," Brick ordered, throwing the Blue ruff off as if they were kids again (although Boomer without his powers was unable to retaliate) but then he smiled. "I've missed you too… hey, is that a police uniform?"

Boomer looked down at his clothes. "And?" he said.

"Dude, do you remember how we used beat those guys up for fun?"

"Still do that," replied Boomer, "although this time it's the criminals, but only if they're…"

"Word of advice Brick," interrupted Butch who was trying but failing to look as if he didn't really care Brick was back, "don't say dude anymore, it ceased being cool while you were dead."

"If not before," interrupted Blossom. She watched Boomer for a moment, who was jumping up and down with excitement. "Looks like I'm not the only one please to see you," she murmured sweetly.

"Yeah, I bet Eddy wasn't," Boomer said loudly, unable to control his volume in this moment of joy. "Which dustbin did you dump him in Brick?"

"Eddy doesn't know yet," Blossom said uncomfortably, (as Butch's eyes fell to his feet,) "he's…"

"Oh lord, another one." Blossom and the Ruffs turned round to see Sonic standing behind them in the door way of his office.

"Err… yes, Brick's back from the dead," Blossom said, equally uncomfortably.

"Hel…" began Brick. Sonic didn't even look at him.

"I didn't know you were going to be in today Blossom," he said incisively.

"Actually it's my day off and I only…"

"Well seeing as you're here I'd like a word with you," Sonic said sweetly, "If it's not too much trouble of course."

"Could it be left until…"

"I said I'd like a word with you if it's not too much trouble," Sonic interrupted firmly. Blossom sighed, and gave the standard "see you in a minute" gesture to the others, before going into Sonic's office. As the hedgehog shut the door, Brick turned to his brothers. "Is everyone that scared of that weakling?" he asked. To his horror, Butch and Boomer merely nodded.

* * *

"Well?" said Blossom accusingly as soon as the door closed. The aggressiveness of the tone in her voice surprised even her, and Sonic seemed momentarily flustered.

"Well what?" he replied, confused.

"I mean come on then," Blossom continued. "You're dieing to lecture me on the rights and wrong of Brick's return so let's…"

"I couldn't give a rat's arse about that," Sonic interrupted, "funnily enough I have more important things to discuss."

"Oh." Blossom paused for a moment. "What?"

"This government proposal to bring the SSR under the control of the government, I think the "we should be an independent body" argument has run its course."

"It managed four years," Blossom said wistfully, "so I think it did pretty well."

"Yes, but now it's over, and if we don't come up with a new plan soon, the bill may get through congress before Bubbles can get inside and screw it up!" Sonic fumed

"You mean if I don't come up with a new plan," Blossom replied smugly. Sonic twisted and writhed for a bit, but eventually nodded. "Okay, well we've exhausted the isolationist argument so let's try the opposite."

"Say again?" Sonic blinked.

"I mean, now we argue that it is unfair to burden the United States with the tax bill and administrative work of running an organisation that essentially protects the entire world, so the SSR should become an international organisation, with, I don't know, international offices, responsibility only to the UN, and a world tax to pay for it."

"Oh come off it Blossom," Sonic stormed, "that could never work. I mean the UN can't run anything, and even I as an alien can see that a world tax would cause outrage everywhere! Besides, why shouldn't the USA foot the bill, they've got all the money!"

Blossom smiled. "That is precisely why it will work. The idea is impossible, but as soon as you get international interests involved everything takes years! And while they are discussing the plans, we can get on with our jobs, other then holding the occasional press conference on the subject to cause trouble of course."

Are you sure we can't be accused of changing our position or anything like that?" Sonic asked concernedly.

"Oh no, no. We'll just argue that this idea still fulfils – sorry, deals with our major concern…"

"Which was that we didn't want to be run by those lunatics on Capital Hill," Sonic finished. "It's brilliant. Well done Blossom. I think the sooner we get this idea to the press the better, eh?"

"Yes, Sonic."

"Right, you can go then, I'll draw up a press release."

Blossom's face lost all its colour. "You?" she said.

"What, are you suggesting I'm bad with the press?"

"Err..."

"Besides, I have some really good jokes that will mean the press are bound to sit up and take notice…"

"You know I might have time to draw one up," Blossom interrupted quickly.

"Really, when?"

"Now"

"But don't you want to spend some time with Brick?"

"Yes," Blossom paused, "but then again, there is such a thing as duty, isn't there." The duty not to let you ruin my brilliant plan, she thought to her self.

* * *

"… so on balance I thought you might like to spend this afternoon with your brothers," Blossom finished. Brick went to answer, but Boomer got there first, (he was still bouncing around like an excited school boy.)

"Really! Do you think that's possible! Please Brick?" he gibbered.

Brick looked at him in amazement. "Maybe once you've been sedated!" he said.

"Hey, that reminds me," Boomer replied instantly, "do you remember when that was the cue for butch to OW!"

"Yes, I remember," Butch moved his hand away from the point of impact, leaving Boomer to rub the back of his neck. "So you coming Brick?" Butch asked. His brother nodded. "Great, we'll meet you in the car down stairs," and he dragged Boomer off.

Brick stood there for a moment with a bemused look on his face. "They really missed me, didn't they," he said, almost aghast.

Blossom put her arm around him. "Lots of people did," she said softly.

"Expect Eddy."

"Yeah, listen Brick, on that note, I've been thinking." She turned round his body to face him. "Eddy's been very good to us… well, me… or sort of us I suppose because he kept me… err…"

"Blossom," Brick said softly, caressing the side of her head with his hand, "you're blithering. What's wrong?"

Blossom took a deep breath. "I don't want to do this behind his back. It would be… disrespectful to him. So I think we should leave off the… affair until I've spoken to him. You understand?"

No, I don't. I want to take you in my hands and make passionate love to you right now… what was Brick wanted to say. But instead he said "yes, I understand."

"Great, thanks Brick," Blossom said, before kissing him on the lips. This lingered for a moment before they split, long enough for Brick to slip Blossom's mobile out of her pocket. He had a phone call to make.

* * *

Eddy was still in the airport, waiting for the fight to Britain. It had taken the him long enough to convince the paranoid security officials that the reason the metal detector went off every time MJ walked through it was because she had metal braces, and not because she was concealing a weapon and planning a daring hijacking.

Now they were waiting for the boarding call. Edward was being weird; flipping from incessant blabbering to a stony silence all most at random. Eddy wasn't sure if this was a sign he was excited or nervous, or just being a teenager. He decided to let it go for now, the kid did have a fairly daunting task ahead of him.

MJ had trotted of to the airport gift shop, and spent ten dollars on a pencil, so was now board. Eddy wondered how she'd manage when she realised how boring the flight would be. She'd probably go off on one about how not so long ago she could fly.

The kids were both in a silent phase at the moment. Eddy didn't like this because it gave him a chance to think about Blossom. So he spoke.

"We'll be on the plane soon," he said, "so what do we know about England?"

There was a depressingly long silence (for an English man anyway.) Eventually MJ spoke. "The capital is London… and they speak English…err…"

"They have a different type of football," suggested Edward.

"Well you've surpassed my knowledge already," Eddy laughed, when his phone started ringing. Eddy recognised the ring tone in a flash; it was the one he'd assigned for Blossom. "One moment kids," he said, and stood up walking out of ear shot. If this was she owning up, he didn't want the children to hear just yet. He picked up the phone and tried to sound normal. "Hi dear!" he said.

"That was a dirty trick, taking the kids away! What are you planning?"

It took Eddy a moment to compute the voice. "Brick? How did you get this phone?"

"That's irrelevant!" Brick stormed. "You better not be trying something here, or I'll…"

Eddy suddenly realised what Brick was on about. Was it possible that Blossom had reacted to Eddy leaving with the kids in a way Brick had found to his disadvantage? Maybe… well, Eddy had no such plans to sneak the kids out from under Blossom's nose (they'd hate it for a start) but that wasn't a reason to not make Brick paranoid.

"You'll what!" he retorted. "Kill me? You won't know where we are." He hung up immediately, and when the phone started ringing again immediately, he turned it off.

Right, drop me a review of you have any opinions. Thanks fo reading, and i'll try to be quicker.


	8. Shtting Bricks

Okay, this chapter is rather short, but half of it was written before an exam, and the other half just after it, so I think its okay. The exam went well by the way…

**7. Shitting Bricks**

The three Ruffs where now in a car on their way to a fairly standard social location; the bowling alley. Bowling is a great game for socialising because there's that vital element of competition mixed with the ability to chat and drink beer while playing. Still, without their powers, Butch and Boomer were relegated to four wheeled transport. Boomer drove with Butch crammed in the back, while Brick fidgeted in the passenger seat. The three of them made idle small talk most of the way, discussing mainly what Brick had missed, why Buttercup and Bubbles where no longer talking, and the vexed question of how life was without powers (Butch proved to be the master of understatement by suggesting it was "Inconvenient,") before enough courage was picked up to ask the inevitable question.

"Boomer," asked Brick, "why do you drive an American car? You know they're rubbish!"

Boomer shrugged, only the way some that wants an Aston Martin can. "I have to support the American economy," he muttered, "or Bubbles said something like that. Good political image and all that shit."

"Dude, that's weak," Brick snorted. "Does she always tell you what to do?"

Kindly, Butch rescued Boomer from having to answer that one. "Hey Brick, can I give you some advice? Never say "Dude," or "that's weak," again okay?"

"What, why?"

"Those words have gone spectacularly out of fashion since you died for a start, and even if they hadn't, a thirty eight year old really shouldn't say them."

"Wait a minute," Boomer realised, "Brick, you're so out of touch now, after being dead and all that, that you now don't know what's cool! So me and Butch will get to tell you what to do!"

"That'll make a nice change," chuckled Butch.

Brick frowned. "What makes you think I'm not cool?" he stormed.

"Well, for a start," said Boomer, "you're still wearing that baseball cap."

"I like it!" Brick grabbed his hat defensively.

"But it makes you look like you're half way through a mid life crisis," Boomer finished. Butch opened his mouth to speak, but Boomer waved him down. "I can handle this Butch," he said, "if anything at all has rubbed of from Bubbles, it'll be a good sense of style." He looked at Brick acutely. "Right, your clothes are too tight – its bad form to show off your muscle size like that at your age – you need a shorter hair cut, trainers with a less obvious logo on them, and a bit of a trim on the old whiskers."

"Could you stop judging me and start looking at where you're driving," Brick snapped angrily. Boomer shrugged and faced forward again.

"Sorry," he said snidely, "I just thought you'd want to look cool for Blossom, that's all."

"Blossom doesn't care about cool," Brick snorted. "I mean, when was she ever cool? Remember back at High School? She was about as cool as you Boomer – which in case your wondering is bad (Butch nodded in agreement) – but that didn't stop her being beautiful, intelligent, caring, witty and hot. That's called class, and you can't buy that. It's the same with me; I have class, so I can make anything work."

"A lot has changed since then," Butch said quietly. "Blossom's not the girl she was back then, and you'd do well to remember that."

"What's that supposed to mean," scoffed Brick.

"I mean that she's a woman now, and she'll expect different things from her… "significant other" then previously. You need to watch your step Brick, Eddy may be as ugly as horse shit, but don't underestimate how good a job he's done, or the power of kids on their parents. Blossom didn't… sorry, isn't swapping Eddy for you because she hates him, it's because you're better then him. But if you screw up…"

"Don't lecture me Butch," Brick responded harshly, "I mean what is this, education Brick day? I think I know what my girl wants from me!" There was a moment's silence, and then the red ruff responded more calmly. "Seriously Butch, me and Blossom are meant for each other, just like Boomer and Bubbles and you and Buttercup. You can't mess up true love."

"Yeah, of course not," replied Butch quietly.

"Besides," continued Brick confidently, "the kids won't be a problem. MJ already likes and trusts me, while the other one, you know, that brat what's-his-name, he's already at the age when he starts to hate his parents, so at least he'll have a reason to hate me. As for Eddy," Brick paused, he was still angry about their earlier telephone conversation. "I'll make sure he's not a problem."

* * *

Britain is the greatest country in the world. Fact. Sure, it rains for eight months of the year, and as soon as it stops we run out of water. Yes, and sure our politicians have no principles, and just want to win the election, nothing else. And our media is incapable of reporting anything positive, so that if nothing obviously bad has happened on a day they will scour the country looking for any depressing story they can pad out. And the national sport teams can't win anything, the trains stop every time there's a Wednesday in the month, our army is let down by its equipment the moment they leave the Greenwich Meridian time zone and our international image is that of either drunk football hooligans or aristocratic slave masters in red coats. None of that really matters… much.

There are many other problems with Britain of course; one of them being that our major international airport (Heathrow) is in the middle of terrible traffic congestion. This was the problem that had bothered Eddy the most, along with the fact that the five hour time zone difference meant that by the time he'd got through it, it was gone two in the morning.

The kids (well, MJ,) had found all of this a bit much in the back of a small (by American standards) car, so Eddy had put the radio on to try and quieten her down. It was at this point he'd discovered that all British radio stations are rubbish, (expect from radio 4 when just and minute is on, or radio five on Saturdays, but neither of these circumstances had been applicable.)

Still, once they got on the M4, things brightened up. Sure, the "Motorway" was tiny by US standards, and it had corners that needed to by negotiated, but the car (being European) handled well, and Eddy enjoyed the novelty of being able to drive at 70 miles per hour legally. Also, it is difficult to conceive how much smaller America is compared to Britain until you've been to both. Sure, to get from London to Cardiff (and the hotel) meant driving across three quarters of the country at it's second widest point, but it was only about two hours until Oxford, Swindon and Bath had been passed, and minutes latter, Bristol and the Severn Bridge: the gate way to Wales. Eddy decided that they better stop now and get some food and a coffee t stop him crashing. This meant sampling another "delight" of Britain – motorway service stations.

And being Wales, it was raining. It always rains in Wales.

Eddy returned to the car, having left the kids inside, with burger meals (since he trusted them more then he trusted the sandwiches that were available.) He tapped Edward to wake him up. "I have food!" he said.

Edward, being tired, merely nodded and started to eat. MJ did the same, although she seemed slightly upset that the meat had been ruined by someone daring to cook it. Eddy also sat quietly, drinking his coffee, glad that he was now too tired to think about the thing he didn't want to think about.

Suddenly, a small voice piped up in the car. "Dad," mumbled Edward pathetically, "I can't do this."

Eddy blinked. "Course you can son," he reassured quickly, "you're just nervous that's all."

"No," protested Edward, "I can't. I've never driven a car, or used a clutch or anything! How am I supposed to get a turbo charged rally car down a gravel road quicker then some European locals who have infinitely more experience then I have! It's not possible."

Eddy was rather at a loss at what to say to this, but fortunately, MJ had just finished eating. "They never said you had to be quicker," she said.

"But that's obvious," Edward spat.

"No it isn't," Eddy jumped in quickly. "You're trying to get a place on a young driver development scheme, development being the key word. You just need to show that you've got more potential then the rest, not that you're better now."

"Okay," said Edward, but he looked doubtful.

"Come on Edward," MJ piped up again, "Mum's fought against odds worse then this hundreds of times, and she never gave up. I know you can do it."

"Yes," said Eddy slowly. Blossom wouldn't give up on anything, or anyone. He was going to miss her. "I'll give you a quick lesson in clutch control tomorrow… I mean latter today. For now, we better get going."

* * *

By the time Brick had finished with his brothers, he was amazed to discover that it was nearly midnight. He was even more amazed to find out that Blossom herself had only just finished. "I wanted that press release phased just right," she explained.

"You always were wired about that sort of thing," Brick commented. "Everything had to be just so."

Blossom laughed. "If a job's worth doing it's worth doing properly." They'd just arrived back home (Brick carrying Blossom old school style) and the first thing Blossom did was check the answer phone. "Humph, two messages," she muttered nervously.

_Beep. Message one. Click "Hi Blossom," _Buttercup's voice said, _"I expect that you've had your surprise by now, so you're not really in a position to answer the phone. Anyway, I hope you're enjoying your current position _– this was followed by much laughter – _and if you want a cup of coffee or something tomorrow, I'm in all day. Love ya, have fun!" Clunk click. Message two. Click "Hi, Blossom," _Bubbles this time, _"Listen, I just heard the news about, well you know. It's fantastic, I'm so happy for you girl, but I can't say that too loud, or my political adviser will kill me! Anyway, I'm got sometime free tomorrow morning if you want a chat – it seems like, I don't know, a year we spoke – but if you're busy that's cool too. Okay, gota go now, see ya," Clunk click. End of messages. Click._

"Oh that's good then," Blossom said, visibly relaxed. Brick watched her intently.

"You're worried about Eddy, aren't you," he said. Blossom tensed.

"I just don't want to hurt him, more then I have to anyway," she sighed. Then she swung round, with a smile on her face. "Anyway, I need to show you the spare room, so you can dump your stuff."

Brick remembered that they weren't going to sleep together until Eddy was back. He tried not to look too disappointed. "Yeah, okay," he said.

Blossom left Brick in it for him to get unpacked while she went to find some night clothes for him. Unpacking didn't take long, the only item Brick had on him had been burning a hole in his pocket ever since he'd arrived; the contract with Him. He dashed it out and quickly unfurled it, checking up and down just to make sure it hadn't changed since he made it. It hadn't. Brick was relived, when a knock on the door made him jump.

"Come in," he stuttered, as he jammed the offending item under the bed. Blossom opened the door, with some night clothes for him, and also a sleeping bag.

"I was thinking," she said happily. "It may be wrong for you to sleep in Eddy's bed, but there's nothing wrong with me sleeping in here right? We can talk and such," she giggled in a girly manor.

Brick smiled. "That'll be great," he said. Then he realised he wasn't lying. Gee, I'm old, he thought.


	9. Setting up the End Game

Okay, the exams are over, and I've recovered from the shock of it all, so I'm back. And here is a nice longish chapter to start with. Thanks to all my reviewers for there continuing support and I'll try and keep the chapters flowing from now.

**8. Setting up the End Game**

Brick didn't have a very restful nights sleep. Sure, he was up until the earlier hours talking to Blossom about anything and everything. She had eventually dropped off, which left Brick awake. When he'd been dead, sleep had been unnecessary, and now he was alive it was going to take some getting used to again.

Still, while he was up, Brick busied himself with the tiresome job of thinking. He glanced over at Blossom, who was sleeping peacefully, with a small smile on her face. He sighed, stroking her hair gently. She'd always been beautiful, and she still was, in his eyes anyway. Time had past and things had changed, but Brick knew deep down that people don't change. She was still his Blossom.

But things had happened since he'd died, as much as he didn't want to admit it. Eddy, those kids, they were what had changed. For Blossom, they were an object of love that had carried her through the time she'd been with out him. Thus, by definition, this made them an obstacle for Brick, which had to be removed. The children were – well should have been more of a problem then Eddy, due to the mother-child bond (a bond which Brick did not have first hand experience of, but had seen through his work as Death's assistant.) Eddy had made himself the problem by taking the kids out of the country. This made Brick mad. He'd given the little runt a break, and this was how he'd repaid him? He'd pay.

Now being Blossom's male version (affectively), Brick was no idiot. Also, while he'd been dead, occasionally boredom had led him to read the strangest books that Death had had lying around his domain. One of them had been a list of amendments to the USA's laws 2015-2020. (We're slightly further forward then that in these stories, but it's not greatly important.) One of the more (or only) entertaining parts was the section on divorce law, which had become increasingly complex as the activity had become more common, so much so that that there were loopholes and technicalities all over the place. One of the latter of these that Brick had read up on just in case, was that one parent was not supposed to leave the country with children without the other parent's permission. (NB: I am a maths student, not a law student, so I have no idea if this is true. But, being set slightly in the future I can make any silly laws that I like.)

Of course, being a technicality, no one gave it much thought. But Brick had always been good with getting him and his brothers out of jail on technicalities, (sometimes it was more satisfying them just smashing your way out) so he was rather fond of them.

Eventually morning came, and Brick stirred, having finally dropped off. Blossom had gone, possibly to get ready for work. Still, a glance at the clock told him that it was only eight, so Brick jumped up to try and find her.

It didn't take long; she was standing at the door of MJ's empty room. Brick walked smoothly over, and put a hand on her shoulder. She smiled and leaned on to him. "There good kids," she mumbled nervously, "I'm sure they'll grow too really like you." There wasn't much conviction in her voice, and if Brick wasn't so focused on enacting his plan, then he might have noticed.

"I'm sure," he said smoothly. "Eddy will be bringing them back this evening, so don't worry." Blossom nodded, shifted slightly.

"How do you reckon Eddy's going to take it?" she asked. Brick shrugged.

"Badly," he said honestly. "Anyone loosing the most extraordinary girl in the world is going to take it badly. I know I would."

Blossom smiled at the compliment, but just for a moment. "You don't think he'll do anything stupid, I mean…"

"You mean something with the kids?" asked Brick, directing the conversation in the direction he required. Blossom nodded.

"I'd really prefer it if they were in the country right now," she sighed. Brick smiled, and gave her a hug.

"That's all I need to know," he said.

* * *

Work at "Edd Cars" (the sort of name that would make any body that was even slightly consumer aware run like mad) continued, despite the temporary absence of its "inspirational" boss. In fact, since Eddy had the leadership qualities of Jeremy Clarkson, Butch, Double D and Ed probably did better without him.

Work continued smoothly until ten thirty, when:

"Hi Butch, what ya doing with that spanner?" The Green Ruff turned round to find his Brother behind him.

"Well Brick, I'm actually trying to make the front suspension on this Ford not look likes it's been in an accident, but more to the point, what are you doing here?"

"What," Brick sniffed, "do I need a reason to visit my brother? I was in the area taking your advice and buying some more grown-up clothes, so I thought I'd pop in and say hi. Nothing wrong with that. Besides," he said more quietly, with a hint of glee in his voice, "if the divorce settlement goes how I want, I might end up with this place, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, right" chuckled Butch uncomfortably, as Brick nudged him in the ribs. "As a side note, if your taking my advise, you really ort not to say ya."

"Noted," Brick replied, writing the word down on an imaginary note pad.

"But over then that," he looked round slightly nervously, "what are you planning to leave Eddy with?"

Brick wasn't looking at Butch anymore; his next target had just entered the room. "His pride Butch," he whispered, tapping his brother on the shoulder, before striding confidently over to the new arrival in the work shop; Double D. "Hello," Brick greeted him in enthusiastic tones. "Allow me to introduce my self sir, my name is Brick."

Double D looked up and smiled (his natural politeness prevented any other response.) "Please to meet you," he lied cheerfully. "Err… Welcome to Ed cars?" he tried hopefully.

"Yeah, I gathered from the sign," Brick said. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Edd, Blossom speaks very highly of you."

"Well, that's very good of her," started Double D, but Brick cut across him as soon as he paused for a breath. He had some world class lying to get on to.

"Listen, I was wondering if you could do me a favour," He said. "You see, I'm sure your aware of Blossom and my situation…"

"If not I could make a very good guess," Double D responded, somehow keeping any bile from his voice.

"Then I'm sure you'll understand how awkward it is for us," Brick continued. "Anyway, to cut a long story short, Blossom's very worried about how things are going to go with the split with Eddy, and for the kids sake we'd like this all over soon."

"Yes, I see."

"But she'd worried that Eddy might react… well, for lack of a better word, badly. So I thought," Brick said earnestly, playing the supportive boyfriend card to its full ability, "that as Eddy's best friend you'd be able to reassure her that he won't do anything… over the top. You know."

"Err…" Double D paused. Knowing Eddy well, it was not an assurance he was willing to make. "Perhaps I could tell Eddy first," he suggested. "You know, off the record, to soften the blow for him a bit. Give him a chance to calm down before he face's Blossom."

"Ah," Brick put on his best concerned face, "because I sort of tried to do that myself."

"Pardon?"

"Well, I thought it would be unfair just to walk in and throw him out" he lied, "so I thought it best just to give him notice without telling Blossom, and let him have a day to sort things out before I…"

"And he left the country after that!" Double D stammered.

"Yes. Why, is that a problem?"

Pretending to be a total moron appeared to have done the trick. Double D opened his mouth a couple of times, attempting to find words with which to respond, before giving up and just pacing up and down for a moment, looking extremely worried. "Eddy does sometimes do things that are stupid," he eventually stuttered. "I… well, I'm sure its just a coincidence."

"Really, oh that's good then," said Brick, pretending to be completely reassured. "I'm sure you'll do what's right. Thanks for your advice, I'll see you around." He turned on his heal, and strode off. As he passed him, Butch grabbed his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Butch hissed, as Double D quietly panicked behind them. Brick smiled.

"Just making sure bro," he chuckled. "Just making sure."

* * *

Blossom was good at making the most of her lunch breaks. That or Sonic could be easily fooled by a "Doing extremely fiddly paper work, do not disturb," sign on her office's door. Hence she was now at Buttercups.

"What do you think I should do Buttercup," she asked worriedly. "I mean, if you were leaving Butch how would you handle it with out hurting his feelings, or turning the kids against you?"

"If I was leaving Butch he'd be out the door on his arse in ten seconds," Buttercup replied, "and I'd just tell SP what he'd done to disserve it."

"Okay, yes bad example," Blossom admitted. "But… well you know, how should I approach this, with the children and stuff."

"Well you could always stay with Eddy," the green puff mused, before bursting out laughing. "I'm sorry," she giggled, "I thought I could keep a straight face, but I can't."

"If you're not going to take this seriously I do have another sister I can consult!" Blossom snapped.

"Okay, sorry," Buttercup stifled her laughter. "But you do realise staying with Eddy's not an option, especially if you only do it to try and keep the kids on your side. Both Eddy and Brick will resent that."

"I know, I've got to tell him." She looked down at her wedding ring. "It's going to be hard though, I mean, we have been married, and it wasn't all bad. I just don't want to destroy him and loose the kids."

Buttercup nodded. "Well, what I'd do is to make sure Brick isn't home when they arrive home, and talk to Eddy and the kids separately. Use some of the old Blossom charm, if you know what I mean. You can expect a bad reaction, but it will blow over."

"I suppose so," Blossom muttered.

"But remember," Buttercup finished, standing up, "you have a right to be happy, okay. Don't let them guilt trip you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to visit the crapper."

"Alright," Blossom looked at her watch. "I better get back to work anyway. Thanks for your advice sis."

"No problem," Buttercup said. "Now, don't do the typical Blossom thing and go straight to Bubbles for validation of my advice."

"Of course not," replied Blossom, "what makes you think I'd do that?"

"Past experience," called Buttercup. Blossom nodded, and left.

She'd barely got out the door when she bumped into Butch. "Oh, hi Blossom," he muttered surprised. "What brings you here?"

"I was just getting some advice from Buttercup about how to swap Eddy for Brick," Blossom replied jovially, completely miss judging Butch's view on the matter.

"Oh. So it's just like that is it?" Butch responded quickly. "Thanks very much but I've got something better now?"

Blossom was rather taken aback by this. "No," she said, "that's why I was talking to Buttercup; I wanted to know how I could approach this sensitively."

"Ah, so it is as I said but you don't want it to seem like it," Butch snapped.

"I… why are you so concerned?" Blossom swung the question around to try and take the pressure off, but then stopped. The obvious was almost too unbelievable. "Butch, is it possible that you think I should stay with Eddy?"

"No, no of course not," Butch replied rapidly. "Why should I possibly want you to," (his head started to drop to his feet as he spoke) "honour your marriage vows despite the problems, and not run off with my brother. The right choice is obvious." He looked up again. "Sorry, I'm just very hungry, Eddy keeps the only key to the staff fridge, so I had to come home for lunch, as you can see by me being home right now, and I get jumpy when hungry, which is why I snapped at you, and I didn't mean to."

"Your beginning to sound like Mojo," said Blossom over the awkward silence.

"Yeah," said Butch. "I better not keep you, see you latter." And he left the pink puff alone outside, rather bemused.

* * *

After the morning impromptu clutch lesson and a surprisingly long drive on roads that were so narrow they wouldn't even be considered as such in the USA, Eddy, Edward and MJ arrived in a damp, muddy clearing in a forest somewhere in south Wales. Mr. Belling was there to great them.

"Hello," he said, pacifically addressing Edward. "On behalf of the Red Ball drinks corporation, I would like to welcome you to Wales. Now our other prospective young drivers have already been out," he continued before anyone could interrupt him, "and they've been very quick, but I'm sure you'll show everyone how we do things in the USA, won't you Edward. Now you've got about five minutes, so go get changed in the porter cabin over there, and good luck."

The words of Mr. Belling had done little to settle Edward's nerves, so he was almost sweating a river as he wondered over to the car in the hideous Red Ball fireproof suit and with a helmet tucked under his arm. He looked a lot more professional then he felt. While he'd been changing, Eddy had been taken off to talk with the backers (something he was bound to be fairly good at, because money was involved,) while MJ had decided to make her own fun with the nearby trees. The mechanics had also finished preparing the car, so it was just sitting there, alone. With great trepidation, Edward crept over to take a look.

A look in the window showed that the machine was almost as complex as he feared. At least the gear box was semi automatic, so it was just up for a higher gear and down for a lower one, but he'd still need the clutch. This was ridiculous, how was he supposed to be faster then everyone else.

"What ya doing kid," said a voice behind in slightly doggy English. Edward turned around to see a tall man of almost three times his age standing behind him. He was also in a racing suit; Eddy guessed that he might be the lead driver or something.

"I'm just having a look sir," Edward said, jumping away from the car. The man looked at him.

"You one of those young guys?" he asked. Edward couldn't quite place the accent, it sounded almost German.

"Err… yes."

"You're not very… how do we say it, err… happy, are you?"

"Not really," admitted Edward before he could stop himself, "in fact I'm a bit scared."

The man smiled slightly, and stuck out a hand. "My names Timo," he said.

"I'm Edward," Edward responded, shaking his hand. "Timo… that's Japanese?"

"Finish."

"Really, well I was quite close."

"Ya, you were only a few hundred thousand kilometres out," laughed Timo. "Now, you up next for a run in ze car?"

"Yes, but I heard the other guys are quite quick."

"Yeah, maybe but they're rubbish."

"What?"

"Too much bravery, not enough talent," Timo replied dismissively. "Or brain power. The way they throw the car around you'd think it was a tank! You can get on this development thingy nice and easy if you listen to me. Take it easy at first and build into to it through out the stage. The surface is just mud, mud, mud so it's very slippy, let's you slide the car a bit. Be slow at first and get a feel for the mud, and I'll tell you when I think we can speed up."

"Sorry, we?" said Edward confused as Timo walked round to the other side of the car.

"Ya, for sure," Timo replied instantly. "I'm the co-driver. Hop in."

Now Edward recornised him. He took a deep breath. "Okay…" he said.


	10. Arrested Developments

Hello WRC fans! No wait, that's not right… Anyway, I was astounded by the promptness of the reviews I received for the last chapter, completely bowled over. So now I'd like to publicly thank my old loyal reviewers Madame fist, CamillaMB, SithknightGallen and my new loyal reviewer Shockhorror. It's your support and advice (and that of my brother) that make these stories worth sharing, so thank you.

Anyway, I was determined to respond with a quick update… and then my brain drained a bit further out of my ears post examinations, so I'm late again. Sorry. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

**9. Arrested Developments**

Okay, it's time for me to spend a paragraph or two doing what I do best; prattling on about something really boring.

In America, its called being in "the Zone." It's used to refer generally to sporting events, when a competitor is performing at there peak with seemingly little effort. It mostly sparks from having lots of confidence, perhaps built up from a moment of pure genius. For example, in the English Premiership, we can currently suggest that Wayne Rooney is "in the zone," but Andriy Shevchenko is not. Of course if you've never heard of those two (possibly because you are American) I could talk about Peyton Manning in that concept (until he messes up on Sunday.)

However, in Motor Racing circles, it's known as being "in the Groove," and this phase has nothing to do with 1960's pop music. In fact, it originates from the 1910's, when even the grand prix's took place on roads made from compacted mud. As with all circuits, there was a best line around all the corners, which all the drivers would try to drive on so as to be as quick as possible. However since the road was only made of mud, and the cars where massive and extremely heavy (the engines were up to 18 litres, which is about 8 times the size of your family saloon) the cars quickly wore a groove in the racing line. So there you go, if you were in the groove, you were on the correct line so travelling quickly. If you weren't, you were either travelling slower or heading for the nearest tree.

* * *

Edward was in the groove – which being a rally stage in Wales was basically a shallow ditch. At first the car had been as twitchy as hell, there had been no grip for the tyres and the brakes had been far better then expected, meaning he'd locked the wheels every time he'd tried to use them. But after a miles or so of muddy damp corners with disconcertingly large trees either side, he'd began to get a feel for it, for how the road surface was behaving, for how long the car would slide before it came back straight, and how playing with the throttle and the brakes enough could get a more consistent turn from the car then anything he could manage with the steering wheel. 

Plus, with Timo either egging him on or holding him back in the passenger seat (between calling out pace notes), he was now feeling very confident. The car flowed nicely from one apex to the next so nicely in fact, that Edward felt like he was barely doing any of the work. It was a slightly surreal experience.

Presently, and far sooner then Edward would have liked, the finish board appeared from behind a tree. He gently braked the car down to a safer thirty miles per-hour and started to cruise it back through the service park to the mechanics. "Err… how was that," he asked Timo, slightly nervously.

"It vas good," Timo replied. "Good ya. Zat's the first time today I didn't think we were going to crash, for sure."

Edward allowed himself a brief smile, for about as long as it took him to see the time from the run. "Shit! I was a minute and a half slower then the next slowest guy," he spouted.

Timo glanced but at the board, and nodded. "Ya, we lost most of that in the first five miles or so, but that's okay," he said. Edward parked the car.

"Not it isn't," he muttered, "that's really slow."

Timo laughed. "If they wanted a fast driver, would they call it a _development _course? Nah, they are looking for someone with potential for Selling and for Rallying." He opened the door. "They reckon you've got one, and I reckon you've got the other." With that he got out, said a few things to the mechanics loudly in Finish while pointing at Edward, before striding over to the waiting crowd of executives.

* * *

Of course, there was no question of Blossom sticking to her promise to Buttercup not to consult Bubbles immediately. Absolutely none. Besides, her other sister had a brief window and it might be a while before they could speak again. 

"So what do you think Bubbles?" Blossom asked. Bubbles finished sipping her coffee, nodding vigorously.

"You've got to go for it Blossom," she said chirpily, "it's your happiness and future that's at stake here. The kids are only going to be around for what… eight more years or so? They'll cope."

"What about Eddy, isn't it a bit unfair on him?" Blossom wondered.

Bubbles shook her head. "Unexpected, but not unfair, he always knew the score, whether you have good romance recently or not." She paused for a moment. "Say, if you're worried about his reaction, you could always do it more slowly, delay things a bit."

"For how long."

"I don't know… say, until after the election?"

"Oh Bubbles! Honestly!" Blossom snapped.

"Okay, okay, no harm in asking," she replied. "My political adviser would kill me if I didn't ask. You will try and keep it sort of low key though, won't you."

"I don't know, it depends how things go with Eddy, especially when it comes over custody arrangements." Blossom looked at her hands. "Do you think he will?"

"Truthfully?" asked Bubbles, "or do you want the sort of answers I give the press?"

"No, the truth would be nice Bubbles," Blossom responded curtly.

"Well I think he will, yes. I mean I would if it were my kids."

"Bubbles you don't even have any children," Blossom said with a slightly searching tone in her voice. Bubbles shifted uneasily.

"Yes, well I was referring to Edward and MJ, if they were my kids," she replied, not particularly convincingly. Blossom didn't have to press very hard to get more out of her. "Okay, so yes, I do want children," she admitted, before stopping.

Blossom waited for a moment. "Go on," she said. "Why haven't you then?"

"Well, I'm very busy with politics' and such and Boomers busy and…" she sighed. "And I'm too scared. I don't want to spend years of my life trying for kids and failing, like Buttercup has. I mean… well let me try it this way; if it wasn't for the Brandy bit, Buttercup would have forgiven me by now for what happened with the Chaos energy. It's quite depressing."

"Okay," said Blossom thoughtfully, "but you're not getting any younger Bubbles. Do you want to be looking after a teenage kid when you're sixty?"

Bubbles looked at her feet. "No, your right," she said firmly. "I'll talk to Boomer about it."

"Good," said Blossom. She was feeling much better now – she liked helping other people with there problems, it distracted her from her own. Eddy had always been good at that, while Brick rarely ever shared his problems. That could be changed though, she thought confidently.

"By the way Bubbles," She continued as she got up to leave, "do you ever get withdrawal symptoms from loosing all that power you had?"

Bubbles laughed, slightly hollowly. "Only every day," she said. "Good luck with Eddy and the kids."

* * *

Boomer was on his lunch break when his mobile went off. He answered it quickly. "Hello?" 

"Hi Boomer, it's me."

Boomer sat up. "Oh hi Brick," he said cheerfully. "How are you settling back in to the living world?"

"Fine, its going pretty well actually. Listen, I need you to do me a favour."

"Sure Brick, what is it?"

"Its fairly simple," Brick said in hushed tones. "There will be a phone call from someone – not me – about Eddy leaving the country with his children this afternoon. I want you to make sure that your friends in the police treat it with the utmost seriousness."

"Err… sure Brick, why?"

"Its just part of a plan I have, to tie up a few loose ends."

"Ah right," said Boomer. "Well, I'll do my best."

"Brilliant," said Brick. "By the way, this phone call never happened."

"How's that… oh I see. Sorry." And the phone went dead.

* * *

The flight back from Britain was a joyous trip, for two people at least. Edward was reading the terms of the contract for the umpteenth time. "So I have two years of driver development, which mainly consists of learning technique from various instructors and then a year as reserve and test driver for the Red Ball rally team before stepping up to the American Rally championship the following season, and then (hopefully) the World Championship two years latter!" 

MJ craned her neck over to have a closer look. "Oooo!" she said excitedly, peering at the pages, "it must be cool to have your future in front of you like that!"

"It is pretty cool," admitted Edward, ignoring the fact that what MJ had just said didn't really make sense. "Hey! Careful MJ you're dribbling again!"

"It's not my fault," moaned MJ, "Its stupid brace; it makes my mouth fill up with saliva!" She picked at it angrily.

"Maybe, but most people's saliva can't burn holes in things, so you be careful with that." Edward then turned to his dad. "You're being awfully quiet," he said.

Eddy awoke from his day dream and smiled. "No, not quiet, just, err… swelling with pride," he stuttered.

"Really dad?" asked Edward earnestly.

"Yes, I'm proud of both of you," Eddy replied. He paused for a moment. "One thing I want you two to remember is that what ever happens in the future I – and you're mother – will always love you." He reached over and gave then both a brief hug, before getting up and going to the plane's toilet.

MJ turned to Edward. "What does that mean?" she asked nervously.

Edward waved her concerns away. "It just means he's seen the wage figure at the bottom of the contract," he replied, "That's all."

* * *

Brick and Blossom were watching television when she eventually pulled his arm off him. "I really need to go now," she explained. "I can't keep them waiting at the airport, that would be just another thing for them to feel resentment for." 

"Sure, I understand," Brick replied smoothly. "Figured out what you're going to say yet?"

"No… its difficult to know how to approach the situation. I don't want to spin out their suffering, or anything, but I don't want to, you know, spring it on them. Its hard."  
Brick stood up and gave her a hug. "You'll manage," he reassured. "Just be Blossom, and they'll be fine. I mean they love you almost as much as I do."

Blossom smiled, and the kissed tenderly. "You set for tonight?" she asked.

"Yep, I'm going to stay at Boomer's tonight and then tomorrow morning I'll come round and present myself to the kids."

"Good good," Blossom replied smiling broadly. "Then I'll present myself to you." With that she left. Brick chuckled to himself.

"I can't wait," he murmured.

* * *

Eddy was really beginning to wish that he'd been able to stay in America and get this over with. It was going to be hard on the children, especially Edward, bringing them down from such a great high to a crushing low. 

But it was also hard on him. The two days of freedom from Blossom had allowed a tiny part of him to build up a speck of hope. Hope that maybe Blossom might have rejected Brick in favour of him, that maybe she'd turn up and pretend that nothing had happened, or that it possibly had been a very cunning and well thought out practical joke all along.

He knew it was stupid, and he'd tried hard to suppress the hope – to lower himself gently so that the final fall was not so hard – but he'd failed. There was still just enough left in him for the upcoming rejection to really, really hurt. Unless maybe… just maybe…

So distracted was Eddy that he missed a question at passport control. "Sorry, what was that?" he asked.

"I said," the guard snapped agitatedly, "are those your kids?"

"What? Yes, of course they are!"

"I see." The guard glanced at the three passports again, and at Eddy's especially hard. Then he nodded to a co-worker before turning back to Eddy. "Can you step out of the line for a moment please sir."

Eddy did so, and a fraction of a second latter was being grabbed by a policeman. "What the hell!" he gasped, followed quickly by similar exclamations from his children.

"Mr. Panner, you're under arrest for taking these children out of the country without the consent of their mother," the police officer declared formally. Eddy spat at the floor.

"Oh that's fucking constructive!" he bellowed sarcastically, as he was lead away.

* * *

Brick had barely arrived at Boomer's when the phone rang. Bubbles, who was temporarily home picked it up. 

"Hello... Hi Blossom, how ar… what!" she turned to Boomer and Brick, who were both in the doorway. "Eddy's just been arrested!" she gasped.

Brick's act was nearly complete. "No!" he gasped, with realistic fake horror. "How could that have happened…?"

* * *

Just to be tantalising: next chapter (hopefully on Wednessday) - A bit more Sonic and Blossom. 


	11. A Bit More Sonic and Blossom

See, I told you I'd be quicker.

**10. A Bit More Sonic and Blossom**

Upon arrival on at the airport, Blossom had attempted to find and speak to Eddy, but this had proved impossible. Still, Blossom didn't really have time to be confused and annoyed about it; one of the police officers had thrust her kids at her, and she had a lot of explaining to do.

Of course, Blossom really wanted to talk to them in the privacy of her own home. So she needed to delay there questions for the length of the car journey home. As it turned out, this wasn't too hard. Having explained to them that Eddy's arrest was a "misunderstanding," and that she'd sort it out first thing in the morning, she then managed to gently cajole Edward into telling about his test. By the time her son had finished his blow by blow account of the two days, they were home. In fact, both children had cheered up significantly, which was a blow since now she was going to have to bring them back down again.

Opening the door, Blossom realised that her heart was beating very quickly. This was not going to be fun. "Kids," she said as steadily as she could, "can I speak to you in the kitchen for a moment."

"Sure," said Edward after a momentary pause, and MJ obediently followed him. Her tone was making them slightly nervous. The three of them took a seat at the table, and Blossom tried to think of the best way to start. Or a way to start. Eventually she found one.

"Ah, do you two remember when I was arrested five years ago?" she asked.

"Sort of," said MJ (it was half her life away,) "you were locked up for killing Superman, right?"

"Yes, that's right," Blossom said, "but it might be worth me explaining why I killed him."

Edward and MJ glanced at each – they had to admit that they didn't know. "Can't it wait until morning?" asked Edward tiredly, "I'm completely jet-lagged."

"No it can't," Blossom replied instantly, making them both jump. She paused for a moment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap, but I need you two to listen carefully and to listen now.

And so Blossom explained, or tried to. She told them about Brick, and the night nineteen years ago. She told them about how she'd met Eddy _(which I still haven't told you, mg56)_ and the circumstances under which they'd entered the marriage. And then she told them what had happened over the weekend. The annoying thing was that it sounded a lot worse coming out of her mouth then it had in her head, and the kids (unsurprisingly) were not reacting ideally. She could cope with Edwards lack of sympathy, it was MJ's lack of understanding that was causing a larger problem.

"But I don't get it," she whimpered for the umpteenth time, "You married Dad, so you love him?"

"But before I loved Dad I loved Brick," explained Blossom once again, "but he died so I couldn't marry him."

"But… doesn't marriage last for ever?" MJ stuttered between a few tears.

"Nope," muttered Edward, whose eyes were redder then they'd ever been due to his own misery, "only until one person gets board, it seems."

Okay, Edward's lack of sympathy was annoying. "Is wrong for me to want to be with the one I love?" she appealed to him.

"Is it wrong for us to want the same," snapped Edward immediately, making Blossom immediately (and temporarily) regret all the time she'd spent encouraging him to think for himself. As for MJ, Edward's robust statement had done a proper job of set off the water works. Edward grabbed the shaking snivelling Spider-puff into a tight hug, but Blossom was relived that when she approached, her son still had enough respect for her to release MJ into her arms.

"Come on MJ," she said, sitting her on her knee. "Look at me, look at me, there's a good girl. Now, you'll still get to see your dad," she said in her most reassuring tone, "and this doesn't mean that he and I don't love you. We do love you, very much. But… things change, and I want a chance to be," she stopped. "Oh, never mind, you'll understand when your older. Anyway, you quiet like Brick, don't you?"

MJ held back the tears just long enough to nod her head, before crying again. Blossom gave her a close hug and then turned to look at Edward. He was staring at a corner of the floor. A hard fixed stare.

"Do you want a hug Edward?" Blossom asked hopefully.

"No," replied Edward firmly, not moving an inch. "I'm tired, I going to bed before I shoot my mouth off." With that he left, turning the long way round to avoid even looking at her. Blossom tried to ignore this and concentrate on comforting MJ.

After about half an hour, the little child was all cried out. She sniffled a bit more and then sat up. "I'm sorry Mum," she whispered.

"Sorry? What for?"

"I'm sorry I… couldn't make you happy. Happy enough to stay with Daddy."

Blossom's heart almost broke, but she just about held it together. "It's okay MJ," she whispered, none of this is remotely your fault. As I say, when you're a bit older, you'll understand. But please don't blame your self. I promise you, it isn't your fault, and everything's going to be okay. Different, but okay."

MJ nodded, and with one last hug pattered quickly off to bed. Blossom sighed, and made her self a cup of tea to steady her nerves, before heading off upstairs herself. She was going to bed, but on the way, she paused outside the kids' rooms, to see if she could hear something.

There was the muffled undertone of someone weeping drifting through the air. But to her surprise, it was coming from Edward's room. Gently, she pushed the door open. "Edward?" she asked.

Her son was lying on his bed, face down in his pillow. He looked up at his mother quickly, and it was obviously clear that he'd been crying for a while. "Please," he stuttered through his own tears, "please leave me alone. Or I'll say something we'll both regret."

Blossom didn't move. "Say it," she replied. "I won't hold it against you, I promise."

It was only at this point that Edward looked like he was about to explode. Latter, Blossom was sure he would have shouted if he'd physically been able to. Instead, it was merely a horse whisper. "You _promise?_ A promise from you? I'd treat a promise from a politician with more respect! You promised that we weren't mutants, that you weren't a superhero like your sisters, that I was normal and could live what ever life I wanted. You promised Dad that'd you'd be with him until you died! What do you think a promise from you is worth? I'd trust a snake before I trusted you… you…" and then he buried his head in the pillow again, and started shouting muffled words into it, that Blossom could only assume were profanities.

She shut the door and walked away. Right now, Blossom also wanted to cry.

* * *

Seven o'clock sharp, the following morning, Blossom opened the door for Brick, who was smiling like a hyena. "Good morning! What's for Breakfast," he spouted cheerfully, before getting a proper look at Blossom's face. "I mean, how did it go last night?"

Blossom shrugged. "Not great," she said. "I still haven't spoken to Eddy yet and the kids took it quite badly. Breakfast is cereal."

"Don't worry about the children," Brick reassured, with a kiss to her check (which made Blossom involuntarily smile) "They'll feel better for a good night's sleep, and I'm here now, so they can hate me rather then you."

"Yes," Blossom twitched nervously. "You will be nice, won't you?"

"I'm always nice," lied Brick with a smile. Blossom, who wasn't feel a bit reassured, nodded and when upstairs to wake Edward and MJ.

She pretty much said the same thing to them. "Brick's downstairs and he really is a nice person underneath, so please try to be nice." They both nodded, and neither Blossom nor Edward mentioned last night.

As it was, Blossom was in for a shock. As soon as MJ entered the kitchen, Brick opened his arms into a hugging posture. "MJ!" he said in a loud and friendly tone, and even more to Blossom's surprise, the child accepted it, running and jumping into his arms, and spending the entire of Breakfast sitting on his lap picking at his cereal, and talking about her exploits as a Spider-puff (the late night ones that Blossom didn't approve of, especially as she wasn't bullet proof at the moment.) Brick kept on asking questions, and revelling in the attention, MJ kept on talking. She seemed really happy, and in her mind Blossom good see Eddy burning up with jealousy. In one way it was sad, but in another it was quite funny.

"But aren't you worried that you might get kidnapped by a super villain so they can use you as a bargaining chip against your Mum?" asked Brick. MJ shook her head.

"They tried that once," she giggled, "they send this stupidly strong mutant after me so they could black mail Mum into convincing Sonic to support the mutant freedom cause, but I was too fast for him," she giggled. "I managed to lure him on top of a skyscraper and use my webbing to trip him off it. He hit the ground with a large BOOM! It was so cool!"

"Of course your forgetting the part were he got up again and SP had to save you until the former X-men arrived," Blossom added. "Or that was what Buttercup told me."

"I was getting to that!" lied MJ. Brick was just laughing.

"Sounds like you've had some adventures," he said. MJ nodded.

"Yeah, but it can't have been as great as how you got out of Hell," she said enthusiastically. "How did you do it?"

"Well, it was a bit of a challenge," admitted Brick. "You see once I'd finally managed to find a way out, I had to get past these two thugs called Cell and Freeza…"

Blossom spat out her coffee. "WHAT!" she spluttered, "you got past Cell and Freeza!"

"Who?" asked MJ, confused.

"They're two of the strongest creature ever to have lived," Blossom continued. "They both tried to destroy the planet a few years before I was born. You beat them?"

Brick shrugged modestly. "They weren't that tough," he lied. "In fact I beat them quite easily really. Gee, if they were that much trouble Mojo should have created me earlier, I could have sorted them out."

"Except you would have been on their side," Edward snorted. He hadn't said a thing since come downstairs until now, so was obviously board. He turned to Blossom. "Mum, when are you going to get Dad out of jail?" Blossom twitched.

"Soon," she said. "As soon as I can."

"Good, because you did promise," Edward replied, as if the choice of words didn't matter. But of course, they did, and it rather killed the conversation.

* * *

When Blossom went to work, she left the kids at home. There was no way she wanted them going into school just yet, and it would give them another chance to perhaps bond with Brick. (She had made the Red Ruff promise not to be violent with Edward how ever irritating or unhelpful he was before hand.)

Now, she was in her office at the SSR, supposedly working. Instead, she was trying to prove Edward wrong, and get Eddy out of jail. To do this sort of thing, one needs contacts. It's not a matter of what you know but who you know, and there's no better "who you know" then being able to phone up the chief of the supreme court of the United States of America, and say; "Hi, it's Blossom Panner here. Do you remember the time I saved your life?"

Hence, it only took six phone calls and a lot of string pulling to get Eddy charged of the ridiculous offence he was supposed to have committed, get the trial scheduled to this afternoon, arrange for it to be judged by a friend of Blossom's who understood how the case needed to go and to make sure that the press were as much in the dark as possible to keep them from causing a problem for Bubbles.

The only problem was that by the time she'd done all this, an hour had pasted. An hour in which Sonic had wanted to speak to her one minute into, and was a bit miffed that her phone had been engaged for the entire time.

"Ah, so you didn't win the ITV "Ring to Win" prize then," the hedgehog declared sarcastically when Blossom did finally arrive. He was sat in his standard feet-on-the-desk, leaning-back-on-chair position, but Blossom still managed to resist the temptation to tip him it.

"I've got the report you wanted," she replied cordially. "I hope you enjoy it very much."

"Wonderful," replied Sonic. "Can you just pop it the filing cabinet over there, I'll read it later." I.e. never, but Blossom didn't mind too much. It meant that she'd got away with once submitting a report on company health and safety procedure that consisted only of the word "badger" sixty thousand times. Sonic still didn't know.

"While I'm here," Blossom said carefully, "might I ask you one quick question Sonic?"

"Humm, I don't know," mused Sonic. "Err… okay, yes."

"Great. Can…"

"Sorry, I said one question." Blossom waited until Sonic had finished hooting at his own wit, before trying again.

"Can Brick have a job here?" she asked, while think how anyone had ever considered Sonic cool with that sort of sense of humour,

"Ah yes," Sonic responded. He thought for a moment. "No, he can't."

"Pardon?" replied Blossom, who'd been expecting a different answer entirely. "Why not!"

"Because," said Sonic, with his entire legendry cool, "he doesn't have a social security number, or a green card. How would we assess him for tax, or pay his wages, since he can't open a bank account? As far as the government's concerned, he's dead, so he had no record in this country. It would be like employing an illegal immigrant."

"We employ five illegal immigrants as cleaners!" Blossom replied, "and two as cooks!"

"Really, I though the building had been looking tidier recently," Sonic mussed.

"Fine, alright. What if we got Brick a social security number and convinced the government he was alive again. Then could he have a job?"

"Humm, maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Well there is a question of loyalty," Sonic stated bluntly.

"You never questioned Boomer's and Butch's loyalty."

"Yes, but there was a difference there."

"What difference?" scoffed Blossom.

"The difference that if Butch and Boomer had betrayed me, Bubbles and Buttercup would have abandoned them," Sonic explained, with a hint of glee, "while I suspect that you'd still stick with Brick even if he'd just gunned down the pope."

"That's an exaggeration!" Blossom snapped.

"Maybe," replied Sonic, without changing his tone, "but it's an opinion, and it's my opinion which counts." He was obviously enjoying winding Blossom up like this, but it was only now that Blossom realised.

"Fine," she said, sitting down opposite him (and just in front of the smelly trainers attached to Sonic's feet.) "If it's your opinion that counts, tell me; what's your opinion on Brick and Eddy. Which one would you like me to go with?"

Sonic blinked. Then, he sat up with his feet on the floor, a sigh that he was about to be serious. "Let me answer that with a series of questions, and yes and no answers only. Has Eddy ever hit you?"

"Err… no, not intentionally."

"Has he ever hit the kids?"

"No, again…"

"Are you financially secure?"

"Yes."

"Has he slept with another women during your marriage?"

"No."

"Do you love him?"

"… Yes."

"Then justify leaving him to me." Sonic's feet swung back up on to the desk – his serious stint was over.

Blossom still tried. "Because I love Brick more," she answered confidently.

"NahNarh!" replied Sonic in the tone of the family fortunes wrong answer sound. "Our top answer was that you enjoy sex with him more."

"So what if I do," Blossom replied instantly, "is that a crime?"

"In some countries," Sonic replied, "if it means divorcing to get it."

"You wouldn't understand," Blossom replied bitterly, "your matting season only comes around once a year."

"Listen," Sonic replied, still being completely cool about the hold thing, "you asked for my opinion and I gave it. Unlike your sisters I'm not here to validate a decision you've already made. Now I think we've both got work to do."

"Fine." Blossom got up and went to leave. She got too the door before muttering under her breath, "You're just jealous."

She hadn't even been facing Sonic, but hedgehogs have very good hearing. The feet hit the floor again, hard. Sonic was now standing up. "What did you just say?" he hissed. Blossom had clearly touched a nerve, and normally, she would have apologised and backed away. But today was different, and she was dammed if she was going too lectured to about love and marriage by a divorcee hedgehog.

She swung round. "You're jealous Sonic!" she said firmly. "You're jealous that my teenage love has come back to life and yours…"

"You leave her out of this!" Sonic steamed furiously. "It's completely different!"

"How different? When you were begging for your life you told me Brick and Sally were the same! And so were Eddy and Amy, except I made it work and you hired an assassin to have her killed. Face it! You'd give anything to be in my situation and I know which one you'd really choose!" Blossom stood back for a minute, arms folded. For once, Sonic appeared to have been knocked for six, but it didn't last long.

Sonic should have shouted – he was defiantly angry enough. He should have hailed profanities down on her and used his knowledge of her past against her, just as she had. But instead she didn't. He just laughed. A hollow, almost viscous laugh.

"Oh Blossom," he chuckles, "you have no idea what you've just done." He stiffened up suddenly. "I promise you, that before the day is up, you'll regret every single comment you just made, especially the begging one. I just feel sorry for those about to be court in the cross fire, but," he shrugged, "you know. And I _keep _my promises. Now get out."

* * *

Okay, I hope you enjoyed that. This chapter had to focus on Blossom and company, but in the next one, Butch and Buttercup will be back in it again. And my promise is this: If the next chapter doesn't blow you out the water (metaphorically of course,) then I will eat my hat… 


	12. Butch's Saviour is Brick's Nightmare

Hello again, sorry for the long wait, coursework has arrived. Anyway, here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it.

**11. Butch's Savoir is Brick's Nightmare**

In the Buttercup's house, the morning had started somewhat later. Mainly because the adults had over slept and SP had quietly taken herself off to School on the bus. (Later she would explain that they were sleeping so peacefully she didn't have the heart to wake them.) Anyway, once Buttercup had woken up and gone through the "oh my god we've overslept," stage, and established that Sandra Patricia was where she was supposed to be, she settled down into a more usual morning mode.

She leant round the corner into the bedroom, where Butch still was. "I'm just going to take a quick test," she said.

This put Butch straight into his standard morning mode. "Alright, good luck," he stuttered nervously, before sitting down on the bed to wait tensely for the inevitable disappointing news. Or that was what he normally did. Today, though, it was becoming too much.

"Come on Butch, pull yourself together," he muttered to himself. "Live up to your name for once, you're not supposed to give a shit!" He managed to convince himself of this for about half a second, but that was all. Sure, his body may have lived up to his name as much as it ever had (except for a slight back problem, and a couple of hundred other things Butch didn't like to admit to) but mentally he was far removed from his name when it came to having a baby.

Butch did care. He really, really wanted Buttercup to bear the child she so desperately wanted. But he couldn't give it to her, that was the problem. He was the obstruction to her getting pregnant, and that wasn't just him being melodramatic.

The fact was that whenever Gohan and/or the Professor had turned up a bad test fertility test result, it had been Butch's problem. Admittedly, these "negative" results had only occurred ten per cent of the time, but that was still enough to balance the issue of blame more towards Butch then Buttercup. Of course, Butch had always managed to keep the bad results away from Buttercup – the Professor didn't like to upset his daughter and Gohan was far keener on advancing his theory on an unstable Chaos energy foetus then talking about boring fertility tests – but they played on his mind constantly.

And now, the nagging voices in the back of his head wouldn't shut up. You can't give her what she wants, they said. Blossom is going to be happier with a change of husband, and Buttercup would be too. You know it. It's not as if there's a shortage of people who could fill the roll. Just leave gracefully, they said.

From this point, the logical continuity of his mind lead his thoughts to wonder to the day Brandy had been taken from them. Brick – still dead at the time – had shown him three versions of his future (_see "Brick through a Window"_), to try and help Butch respond in the right way. It had worked… up until now. The idea that one day, he would succeed again in giving his wife the baby she deserved had always been enough to hold off the voices, but now they were using it as a weapon against him. I mean, SP didn't appear to fit in the positive future, the future Butch wanted. But she could be placed in the one where he left. Was his destiny against him, as well as his sperm?

So Butch took the final step of the thought process, the angry step. It was unfair! He'd managed it once; he and Buttercup had conceived a child together. It had been done, and then some evil bitch (still behind bars which was good for her safety right now) had taken this success away from him. There was no justice. It wasn't his fault, it was the fault of the world, of life.

At this point Buttercup would normally enter with the failed test, and Butch would sulk for a while after comforting her, before going to work. Today, however, Butch had made good timing in his surge through the emotions of failure, so he ended up thinking a bit more about that day.

Butch had often thought about Brick's sudden appearance that night. It should have – and did – surprise Butch for more reasons then just because Brick was dead. Brick had said that he was working for death at the time, when by rights he should have been in Hell.

There was no arguing this fact; Brick had been a career criminal, who had died trying to kill Superman and had been brought back into this universe from hell by a world renowned demon. There were no possible arguments that could have been used against his damnation. Yet, the night Brick had died, twenty years ago, Butch had tried to do just that.

It was simple really. Being in Hell with his brothers had been hard enough for Butch, (which is where he'd gone after there first defeat by the Puffs), so he could not imagine how terrible it was going to be for Brick to be there alone. So, it a moment of self perceived weakness that night, Butch had thrown him self on his knees and begged the heavens – begged God – to spare his brothers soul. He had no arguments to support his case, and nothing to offer as a bribe in return. All Butch did was shamelessly pled for unconditional mercy.

He'd got no response, and the following morning with his confidence returned, Butch had thought little more about it. Well at least he'd thought there'd been no response. When Brick had turned up that day, fifteen years later, there had been a reason behind Butch's second question to his brother had been about the "Man upstairs."

Now, Butch was desperate again. A lot of the pressure on him was self inflicted, true, but he still could lift it. So, on the grounds that it couldn't hurt (or that was what he told himself,) Brick tried praying.

It went something like this; "Err… hi God… I can call you that? Well anyway, as you're probably aware, I'm having a few difficulties with… well, things really right now and if your there I could really do with some help, if your there. I know you've done a lot for me before with sparing Brick and such, so I'm not asking for a miracle, just a speck of light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe. Please?"

With that he sat up and turned round. Right on cue, Buttercup entered. "How was it?" Butch asked, feeling more optimistic then normal.

Buttercup shook her head. "Negative," she muttered sadly. "I don' know," she sat down for a moment. "I thought we might have had it this time."

Butch sighed, and put his arm around her. "So did I," he murmured. Bastard, he thought.

* * *

Blossom sat waiting in the visiting room. It wasn't a long wait, Blossom carried enough weight around all legal establishments, including prisons, to make sure of that. Soon enough, Eddy was brought in and sat in front of her. He looked none the worse for were for his night behind bars. In fact, as far as Blossom was concerned, he appeared to be concerningly cheerful.

"Good Morning Blossom!" Eddy said, totally over the top. "How are you today?"

"I… why did you say Blossom?" The pink puff, who had been slightly on edge about the prospect of this conversation all day, suddenly found her self picking up on every single speck of Eddy's behaviour that wasn't quite normal.

Eddy was surprised by this. "That is your name isn't it?"

"I know, but you normally call me darling, or dear, at least at the start of the conversation. Why Blossom?"

"I don't know," lied Eddy, "maybe I'm just not in an affectionate mood right now." Blossom excepted him to continue, but he didn't, so she cut to the chase.

"Eddy, Bricks back," she said, with just a hint of guilt in her voice. Eddy's face remained motionless.

"Really?" She nodded. "Did you enjoy it?" Eddy asked.

"Well we haven't actually done it yet," Blossom reassured quickly, "I wanted to speak to you first."

"Ah, is that why he got me thrown in prison?" Eddy spat.

"No, it was Double D who called the police," Blossom replied as calmly as she could.

"WHAT!" Eddy gapped. "The traitor! How the Hell did he manage that!" He got up and stormed around for a bit. "I'm going to dock his wages for that," he eventually declared. "That'll sort him!"

"Quite," Blossom said uncomfortably. "Listen Eddy, this isn't quite how I thought this conversation was going to go. Are you sure you've grasped the full implications of this. Bricks back alive again, so I'm…" she stopped.

"Go on," Eddy encouraged, "say it." She didn't, so Eddy shrugged. "Yeah, I sort of assumed that I was out when I woke up in jail this morning," he joked. This was beginning to irritate Blossom slightly.

"I'm sorry Eddy," she said as sadly as she could, "but it's over."

"Okay."

"What?"

"I said, okay."

Now Blossom was beyond the beginning stage of irritation. "Is that is, 'okay?'"

Eddy shook his head. "No, no your right, there's a lot more then that. Okay, we can't separate the kids, so you better keep them since..."

"Oh come on Eddy! You know what I mean," Blossom snapped. "Aren't you angry with me or hurt or something? You have to be feeling some emotion? Don't you want to shout at me or… or something?"

"No," said Eddy calmly. "This way annoys you more."

Blossom blinked. She really hadn't thought about how to approach this situation. I mean, how was she supposed to apologies to someone who refused to be upset? Or maybe this was just Eddy's way of dealing with pain. She didn't know, but what she really didn't like was the uncertainty of it all.

So she tried a different tack. "Please Eddy I want to know how your feeling."

"Would it easy your conscience to know?" asked Eddy tiredly. Blossom nodded. "I'm not sure I want to do that," Eddy replied, but he relented. "If you must know, I'm not exactly over the moon, but I suppose it was coming sooner or later, so…" he sighed and shrugged. "I can't mind control you can I?"

Blossom looked at her feet. "Don't worry about the court case this afternoon, you'll be out by the time its over and then we'll get this sorted, I promise."

"Ah good," said Eddy, although his tone betrayed that that wasn't what he was thinking. So Blossom had to leave him to it, but she couldn't get the strangeness of the conversation out of her head. It was almost as if Eddy had already become resigned to the fact she was leaving him, but how could he have known?

* * *

Brick was looking nervous when he met up with Blossom again just before the court case. They greeted each other with a simple kiss on the cheek, seeing as the kids where close by. (In fact they were just across the room with Butch and Buttercup, who were there for moral support.) "How was your morning," he asked Blossom.

"Not so good," Blossom admitted, "I had an argument with Sonic and then Eddy was acting really strangely when I went to see him. I don't know, he seemed… well, I don't know. I'm glad to see you though. How was your morning?"

"Alright," said Brick, "had great fun with MJ – those spider powers are great, she really gave me a run for my money."

"And Edward?" queried Blossom with a degree of apprehension.

"Ah, well he bugared off upstairs, so," Brick shrugged. "We could let Eddy have him," he suggested. Blossom shot him a look. "I was joking," he laughed.

"Humm, well," Blossom muttered darkly. "Lets get Eddy out of jail first and then we'll be able to discus it all."

"Of course," replied Brick loyally, although that wasn't the result he was hoping for.

At the start the case could not have been going better. Blossom had got it organised so that proceedings took the form of a preliminary hearing then an actual criminal trial. Eddy had confirmed that he'd just taken the kids out of the country for one day, and was that he had verbal permission from Blossom to take the kids out of the country, something Blossom had confirmed. She'd also added that she trusted Eddy completely, and that this incident was unrelated to the impending collapse of their marriage. So after about an hour, in which no one (not even Brick, although he didn't exactly get a chance) had argued that Eddy was guilty, the judge looked up over his glasses.

"Okay then," he said firmly. "If no one can come up with a reason for me to continue this obviously a black and white waste of everybody's time, I'm going to throw out the case." He waited for a moment, and Blossom had a quick look around the crowded – surprisingly crowded – court room. It appeared that a number of members of the SSR had turned up to watch! Still, as long as they didn't interrupt right now, she didn't mind too much.

"Actually," said a voice from the back, "I have." Blossom's blood instantly went cold. The one who had spoken was the only member she couldn't punish for it latter.

The judge was about to shout down the speaker as he wasn't part of the case, but first he realised who it was. "Oh, Mr. Hedgehog," he stuttered. "Would you like to take the stand?"

Sonic walked slowly and authoritively forward. Blossom lent over Edward and MJ (who she was sitting with.)

"What are you doing here?" she hissed as Sonic walked past, but he mealy smiled, before strolling on past, smiling at Eddy for a moment, and then turning to face the court.

"Actually your honour," he said with an unreasonable amount of smugness, "I would like to call someone else to the stand… Gohan Son."

There was a lot of random murmuring from around the court. One of the more audible murmurs said: "Gee, who ever that is must really know something big!"

"Dad, that's me."

"Oh, what do you know?"

Blossom studied Gohan as he walked up the front to the stand. By the looks of him – the way he was sweating and glancing around nervously – it appeared that he knew what was coming.

Once Gohan had been sworn in, Sonic started his statement. "Now," he said "I would like to start by offering my apologies to Butch and Buttercup. At the time we found this information, it was decided that it was not fair to revel it, since it would have harmed many people. But now it doesn't seem to matter, so," he turned to Gohan, "tell the ladies and gentlemen about your latest findings on puff pregnancies."

Butch and Buttercup had both sat up at this point, Butch muttering a few words before Buttercup silenced him as Gohan began to (nervously) speak. "Well, hehe, err… a… I mean the latest round of tests have shown that a pregnancy for powerpuffs doesn't work the same as a human one, due to the instability of the chaos energy foetus. But, the original hypothesis, that this instability caused the foetus to disintegrate and not form has been proved wrong, and instead we now believe that the foetus just takes a period of time to stabilise."

"How long Gohan," asked Sonic, in that annoying tone of someone who already knows the answer.

Gohan swallowed. "Four years and three months," he said as clearly as his quavering voice could manage.

"WHAT!" shouted Buttercup from the back of the court, as an inescapable smile spread over Butch's face.

"Order!" the judge demanded. "This better be going somewhere!"

"Oh it is," laughed Sonic. "So, once the foetus has formed, it then under goes a normal human pregnancy, thus making the time difference between conception and birth up to five years."

"Yes," confirmed Gohan, and then he got up to leave the box, rather to quickly for Blossom's liking. However, the colour (or lack of it) in Bricks face showed that he knew where this was going.

"Dear God no," Brick whispered, as Sonic grabbed Gohan back.

"Sit down Gohan," commanded Sonic, "and tell us how you confirmed this theory."

"Well… we just did some tests. Simple tests."

"ON…" Soinc continued, trying to prise the information out of the Saiyan scientist.

Gohan gave up the fight (after failing to successfully signal to Goku that he should set off the fire alarm.) "We did some DNA tests on Edward and MJ, the only two second generation Puffs."

"And what did the test for the oldest child show," Sonic finished, with his intolerable smugness.

"That… that Brick is Edwards biological father," Gohan finished. Then he lowered his head to look at his feet, as all hell broke lose.

"THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!" Eddy shouted, jumping to his feet, "THAT'S MY SON, CAN'T YOU SEE THAT!!" But everyone else was seeing something different. That Edward, whose mouth was dropping to the floor, looked very, very similar to the adult red Ruff, to how any child of Brick's (from any fic you may have read) would look. The shouting went on for a moment before the hammer banged all over the desk again.

"Right," said the judge. "The crime of taking someone else's child out of the country without a permission slip carries a standard prison sentence…"

"YOU'RE JOKING!" spat Eddy, as Edward started visibly shaking.

"BUT," continued the judge, "due to the absurd nature of this case, I will hand down the minimum sentence of one week in a minimum security prison." He thudded the hammer against the table, and the guards moved in to lead Eddy away.

"Wait! I… Mummm!" staggered MJ, a few tears of confusion forming in her eyes, "I thought…. I mean, how can Edward not be my brother?"

Blossom didn't have time just now to deal with that question, nor did she have time to deal with Edward's shell shocked brain.

Reaching across as he strolled back past, she grabbed Sonic's arm. "What was that for!" she shouted at him, shaking with anger.

Sonic smiled, and pulled his hand away. "No real reason," he said sweetly, "I just decided to give you what you wanted. Enjoy." And he sped off.

Blossom immediately turned back to try and comfort the kids, but Brick didn't help. In his head, all hell was braking lose. He was a father… to the teenage brat that hated him and everything he stood for… and he was sure he could hear Him laughing.


	13. Aftermarth

**12. Aftermath**

It took Blossom a long time to get home. The court proceedings had all wrapped up pretty quickly, but dragging the jabbering MJ and the shell shocked father/son duo into the car had proved a challenge, especially since Blossom wasn't exactly tip top herself. Eventually they'd staggered into the house, to be greeted by two telephone messages; one from Bubbles screeching paranoid about how long this was going to take to reach the papers, and a second, from Bubbles, apologising for the first, and suggesting that she'd overreacted.

Having dealt with that, Blossom didn't really know what to do next. What she really needed was a chance to talk to all three of them (Brick, MJ and Edward) separately. Fortunately, this opportunity presented itself fairly quickly.

"I need a drink," Brick declared as soon as Bubbles' second message had finished playing, and he wondered off into the kitchen. Edward watched him go with a look of utter hatred, but the teenage bastard son was too filled with emotion to actually say anything, so he departed quickly upstairs with out a word.

This left Blossom and MJ alone in the lounge, and the spider-puff still had just one question on her lips. "How can Brick be Edwards's dad? He's my brother."

"It's not quite that simple," Blossom tried to explain with out going into details, "You see… err… the farther of the child is the man that the woman is… with when the pregnancy begins. So when the period I was pregnant with Edward began, I was with Brick, not Eddy… I mean your Dad."

"Oh." MJ paused. "So I'm not Edward's brother?" she asked.

It was clear that a "No your not" answer would crush her daughter; MJ respected her brother an enormous amount. "Well, you still share the same mother, so you both still have my DNA, so you're still Brother and Sister."

"But that's the argument Edward uses to say he's SP's sister," MJ protested, "and you say I'm not her sister."

"Then I was wrong, you are," Blossom replied quickly.

"I don't want to be her sister," MJ sulked slightly, but before Blossom could snap a response back at this trivial issue, her daughter fired another, far more awkward question. "When's Dad coming home?"

Blossom hesitated. "I think, once he gets out of prison, he'll want to find his own home."

MJ looked hurt. "But… he loves us? Doesn't he want to live with us?"

"Yes but… there's not enough space."

"Couldn't he stay in the spare bedroom where Brick is now?"

"He won't want to MJ," Blossom replied as softly as she could manage, "he won't want to be anywhere near Brick."

"Why?" MJ asked again. Blossom had by now run out of explanations.

"Because… its complex MJ, but he won't. That doesn't mean that he doesn't love you though, and he'll still see you regularly. You'll understand when your older sweetheart," he finished with a smile.

MJ considered things for a moment, and then decided to accept it. She gave Blossom a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before pattering off too her room. Okay, one down, thought Blossom, now who next? After a moments thought, Blossom decided that Edward would need more time to calm down, while she needed to talk to Brick before he drunk himself silly. So she proceeded to the kitchen.

Brick was drinking, but it turned out only to be milk. "Couldn't find your booze," he explained before talking another gulp. Blossom nodded and sat down.

"You okay with this?" she asked.

"Me? Oh yes fine, fine! It's a… wonderful, beautiful thing me and you having a baby, even if it has grown into that… kid." He took another gulp.

Blossom was slightly irked by this. "I know he's difficult and angry right now Brick," she said a lot more calmly then she felt, "but he's still my, our son, and I love him. He'll grow to err, tolerate you given time."

Brick laughed sarcastically. "I'll believe that when I see it! He hates me. My own son… I really wish I'd never died now. He'd have a proper Ruff name, like Bruiser or Bullet or Blade or something, and he'd be a true aggressive stud, rather then a wishy washy middle class snob that's ashamed of who he is."

Blossom look at Brick incredulously. "Listen, he may not be what you want," she spat, "but you are still going to live under the same roof as him for at lest two or three years, and those years are going to be pleasant, or else. Okay?" She sighed, releasing some of her anger. Brick had stopped drinking his milk.

"Sorry," he said, not particularly convincingly. "I'm just a bit overawed by all this. And I can't see us ever getting on."

"Nonsense," Blossom replied instantly. "Its not you as such Edward hates right now, he'd hate anyone that had just come into his life like you have. But when you get to know each other you'll find you have something's in common."

"Like what."

"Well, you're both brave and willing to stand up for your selves; you both love your sport. And Edward's not that much against his powers – not that he has them right now – he used them to save my life when MJ had been transformed by Him remember." She perked up a bit. "I'm sure if you try you can bring out the Ruff in him. He'll certainly bring the middle class snob out of you!"

"Humm, yes, Him," Brick muttered to himself. He turned to look at Blossom and smiled briefly. "Alright, I'll try. But I need a moment alone, okay?" With that, he headed for the spare bedroom, leaving Blossom with just one more stop to make.

After taking a moment to think about what she was going to say, Blossom knocked on the door of Edwards room. Then was a muffled "Come in," in response, so she entered. Edward was playing on his playstation, with one of his rally games. Blossom decided to use this as a starting point.

"Which game is this?" she asked.

"Richard Burns Rally," came the immediate snap response. Blossom nodded, but only once.

"Who?"

"Richard Burns?" Edward replied as the car finished the stage. "He was England's first and only world rally champion."

"I thought Colin McRae won it once?" Blossom replied. It was a good tactic this – get the child talking about something he wanted to talk about. She felt it was a necessary step for the two of them to repair there mother/son relationship.

Edward seemed to think so too. "No, Colin was Scottish. Richard was better then him anyway and a perfect Gentleman too, as well as a talented driver, but unfortunately he died of a brain tumour when he was only 34 years old. Of course his passing almost went unnoticed, because some drunken Irish footballer that did little in his life other then destroy a liver that had been given to him in a transplant because he'd already destroyed his own had died the day before, so obviously he was more deserving of the people of Great Britain's mourning."

"That's awful," Blossom replied in suitable tones, "although I would have thought that the author would have got over it by now."(_Well I haven't, it was an outrage, mg56)_

Edward finally turned round to face his mother. His face was still pale from the shock, but his powerless brown eyes seemed brighter then they had since before he'd gone to Wales with his Dad, sorry Eddy (that was going to take some getting used to.) "Do you want to hear how he won the title?" he asked, hopefully.

If Blossom was being honest, she would have said that she'd rather sit through a lecture on how the fluff in your belly button forms. But this would have been a lie, for however boring she found the subject matter; it was the fact that it was her son telling her that made it interesting. So she sat through the blow by blow account of the series in perfect happiness. Eventually, once he'd finished, Edward had cheered up so much that he was ready to jump in the deep end for Blossom.

"So," he said, "I suppose you want to talk to me about Brick."

Blossom nodded. "I'm sure he'd like to hear about world rallying," she tried, attempting to open up the prospect to him.

Edward shook his head. "I'm sure a philistine like him only like violent sports," he replied, but he didn't put empathises on the word "philistine," in fact he said it as if it was a natural word to apply to Brick.

"He's not that bad," Blossom protested.

"Obviously, or he wouldn't have got in your pants so easily." Edward again responded in a tone suggesting what he was saying was perfectly natural. Blossom didn't really know where to go from here; what she wanted to do was to shout at him, but that would probably have been counter productive.

"Okay Edward, I'm sorry," she replied with an element of aggression. "I made a mistake. But I was very young, and like it or not, I did – and do – love him. But I love you too, a massive amount. Please don't force me to chose, because you know that I'd choose you over Brick if you forced me, but I think you also know how much that would hurt me too." She put her hand on his shoulder. "And I think you love me too, don't you?"

Edward looked at the hand. "You don't hurt people you love," he whispered under his breath, "but it's not possible. Brick may be my farther, but Eddy's my dad, and I'll never accept Brick as such."

"I'm not going to ask you to do that," Blossom said softly, "I just want you to tolerate him. Can you do that for me?"

Edward looked at his feet. Then he looked back at Blossom. "Mum, let me just say this one thing first; I have lost a massive amount of respect for you these past two days." He took a deep breath, making Blossom wonder if he was trying not to cry again. "But," he continued, "I still love you mum, so I'll try." He gave a small smile which Blossom reciprocated.

"Thanks Edward," she gave him a brief hug. "I'll promise I'll try to regain your respect."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Edward laughed hollowly. "Promise is a dirty word from you right now." Blossom was about to retort when Edward caught her off guard by giving her a kiss on the check. "Okay, now go and…" Edward shuddered, "you know. I'm have my headphones on." And with that he returned to his game.

* * *

Butch and Buttercup sat in the bedroom, barely daring to talk. Eventually, Butch spoke first.

"Of course it's a tragedy for Eddy," he said.

"Oh yes, tragedy," replied Buttercup emphatically.

"But," Butch chuckled excitedly, "it could mean…"

"That I'm up to four years pregnant!" finished Buttercup delightedly. Butch scooted over the bed toward her.

"And," he said excitedly, "I've got this special test from Gohan, which should tell us if you are!" Buttercup stared at it, sweating in anticipation. Slowly, she took it in a shaking hand.

"I'm going to try it," she stuttered, before shakily getting up and walking in to the ensuite bathroom.

Butch sat on the bed nervously – if he'd been Buttercup, he'd have been too tense to pee. Perhaps that was why it was taking her so long, or maybe it just seemed that way. But perhaps there struggle had not been in vain; perhaps he wasn't on course to the disastrous future, but the happy one.

These considerations caused Butch to lose concentration for a moment, and before he knew it his hands were together again, and he was muttering under his breath; "Please God may there be a baby, please God may there be a baby," very quickly. It was just a reflex, he told himself, but it did help sooth his nerves.

When Buttercup reappeared, he knew the result instantly. It was obvious from the huge smile on her face. "Three year's" she whispered, "so in two years time, I'm going to have a baby!"

Butch jumped to his feet with a massive cry of "YES!!" and jumped over to hug Buttercup, who despite Butch's not inconsiderable bulk (due to his heavily build muscles) was able to hold him easily (due to hers.) The two of them jumped around the room for the next few minutes laughing hysterically, before SP entered to tell them that they were knocking plaster off the ceiling downstairs.

So they jumped around with SP instead.

* * *

Brick was in the spare room, pacing around frustratedly. In his had, he held the contract that he'd made with Him, the contract that had got him out of Hell, the contract that guaranteed the disgusting demon Brick first born grandchild – Edwards first child. Now Brick could see why Him had wanted Brick's grandchild; Edward was too old to be moulded to his will and desires, he would need a baby. Red energy flared off the Ruff in anger. How could he have been so stupid?

"You lied to me!" he shouted into the darkness. "You told me I didn't have a child!"

The room quickly filled with the predictable red mist, and Him appeared, looking smugger then ever. "With respect Brick, I said nothing of the sort," he crowed in his sweet voice. "What I said was that if you don't know of the existence of such a child, then neither do I. You did know of Edward's existence at the time, so I did not lie."

"But I didn't know he was my son!" Brick scowled. "You said…"

"No, I merely implied," Him said sweetly. "I never said."

"So what's to stop me ripping up this contract right now!" Brick thundered, shaking his fist at Him. The demon smiled.

"Two reasons. Firstly, I think your forgetting how horrible Hell is. And secondly…"

As quickly as he'd come, Him was gone, because Blossom had just opened the door. "You coming to bed Brick?" she asked, leaning on the door frame. Brick looked at her, and couldn't help but smile.

"Try and stop me," he replied, rolling up the contract and throwing it under the bed. Him was right; it was still worth this not to be in Hell. Besides, he had plenty of time to try and work out a way of stopping Edward having a child; it wasn't as if the kid was a party animal with the potential to knock someone up at any moment.

* * *

Down in Hell, Him sat back in his chair in satisfaction. He'd really got Brick this time, and it had been so simple. Sure, it would have been easier if no one had realised until Edward had had a child, but this way was more enjoyable – watching Brick try to stop his son from having a child would be fun. Also, when Blossom found out, she'd be so angry, but so powerless, that it would be a very satisfying occasion. The demon sat back for a moment, bathing in his own brilliance.

Suddenly, the telephone rang, and Him snatched it up. "Helloooooo," he said, revelling in his success.

"Don't sound so smug with me," snapped a gruff voice on the other end. Him sat up immediately.

"Of course not your majesty," he spluttered, "I…"

"Now," the voice continued with unnerving kindness, "how's your little project going?"

"Well!" replied Him quickly, "Very well! You can expect the child to be available within the next ten to twelve years sir, and then we… I mean you can lead your demon armies back into the mortal realm!"

The other participant in the conversation grunted. "That is far too long. You have five years."

Him gulped. "But the pregnancy alone will last that long! Besides, surly you need time to prepare…"

"I'm ready now you fool!" the creature spat. "But, since you insist you have five years and one week."

"Your majesty," Him almost pleaded. "With all due respect, I need time to source out for a suitable mother for the child… it will take time, I mean…"

"I have found a mother," came the replied. "I'll fax you through the details in one hour, then I suggest you get to work, unless you wish to come and explain your failure to me in person!"

"No, no, it shall be done," Him replied quickly.

"Good!" The phone went dead. Him sighed, and relaxed again. This was going to be a challenge. But the reward if he managed it… Him jumped up. What he needed was a cup of tea, and then he could start planning.

What he did not need was a visit from the Hell Police Department. So when Cell and Freeza kicked his door in moments latter, he was extremely annoyed. "What on Hell!" he spluttered.

"Anti terror raid!" declared Cell, as he and Freeza swept him and grabbed him. "Just stand outside quietly while we turn your house upside down or we will be forced to oppress you!"

"This is an outrage!" Him screamed as he was pulled from the house, "You policemen are racists, always targeting the demons!"

"He's getting aggressive," Freeza said, "I better calm him down." This calming down method involved (almost solely) smashing Him's face on the tailgate of the police car LAPD style until the demon was unconscious, while Cell took "evidence" (i.e. the microwave and the widescreen television) from Him's house. This done Freeza set about going through the filling cabinet to see if they could find a reason for this raid. And he did.

"Hey Cell, come and have a look at this," he said. His fellow former super villain/current police colleague wondered over, and read it. Then he smiled.

"I think Goku might like to see this," he said.

Okay, thanks for reading again. I hope everyone's not too confused or anything. If I have contradicted myself at any point in this chapter, please point it out, as then I can clarify any errors. Thanks!


	14. Young Free and Downwardly Mobile

Just a note, I have no experience of American Schooling, because I am British. Thus, I shall use the model of our schools to say that at ten years old, MJ is in the last year of Primary (Elementary) School, while Edward is well into Secondary (High) school, which is the system we use in Britain (accept in Dorset, where they also have middle school, because they are weird)

Also, this chapter, (and probably the next two or so) is mostly Edward and MJ, but don't worry, the story just going to be about them. Besides, the kids only exist to cause trouble for there parents…

Still if you have any ideas for how I can keep Blossom and co busy for a few chapters (bearing in mind Eddy's out of the picture in jail for a while,) I'd be grateful for the suggestions.

**13. Young, free and Downwardly Mobile**

Morning fell into the room like a wet fish on to a plate, accompanied by the thumping sound of the alarm clock. Edward lazily swung his arm over and smashed the off button. Grumpily, he staggered to his feet. School. He was really not looking forward to it today, more then ever. He'd missed two days already, so would have lots of work to do to catch up, there would be plenty of annoying questions about what he'd been doing, and although he would normally love the idea of talking about his success in Wales, there was every probability that his family's "issues" had reached the papers this morning. Fun was not an adjective he expected to be able to apply to the day.

After throwing his uniform on, the lack of sound in the rest of the house began to concern him. Slowly, he opened the door and looked around. Nothing, not a sound. After returning to his room briefly to check that he hadn't miss read the clock (he hadn't) Edward walk confidently back out of his room determined to assert his superiority and to remind the rest of the house of there impending responsibilities of school and work.

By the time he reached his parent's – sorry mothers – bedro… wait it was his parent's bedroom. He knew what had been going on in there last night, or at least was fairly certain. Anyhow, he couldn't just burst in on the aftermath. Heck, he couldn't even creep in. The idea of Blossom and Brick… unlike you, it was the last thing he wanted to think about. So he turned quietly around, and wondered into his sister's room.

MJ was curled up in her bed, chewing on her thumb nervously in her sleep. She stirred immediately when Edward nudged her.

"Huh? What?" she stuttered.

"MJ wake up," Edward said a lot more cheerfully then he felt, "it's time to go to school"

His sister's – there was no way he was going to accept that they were only half's – head fell immediately, but she got up anyway. "Where's mum?" she asked.

"Err…" Edward thought quickly (he could hardly tell her that he was too scared to wake her up in case she was nude), "she's not feeling well today, you know, all the stress and everything. I thought it was best to let her rest.

"Oh," muttered MJ. "Okay. I need to get dressed now"

"Right," Edward responded, "I'll make breakfast." On his way downstairs, Edward allowed himself a long sigh. Only four days ago, this breakfast would have been made by his dad. It seemed like a year now. And instead they'd got some over hyped ass, and already Mum seemed to be more interested in him then her children. Maybe this was just paranoia, but Edward suspected that it wasn't. "I hope the novelty wears out soon," he muttered.

* * *

By the time Blossom woke, Edward and MJ were long gone. However, in comparison to Edward's misery, she drifted back into the world of the awake from a heady happy daze, from the feeling that only comes from being with some one that gives you that special feeling. She glanced over at Brick, who was still asleep, with a huge smile on his face. Just at that moment, he looked so peaceful, like a person who had had all his problems and stress lifted from him. She sighed happily. It was so wonderful to see Brick out of his metal and physical hell and back where he belonged and even more so to know that it was her that did it for him. He could do it for her too. 

The moment ended when she looked at the clock. "SHIT! Sonic's going to kill me!" Blossom jumped up and surged a few steps out of bed before realising that her hair wasn't coming with her like it should. A quick examination behind her showed that it was because Brick was holding on to it. He was looking at her naked behind until she turned around, when after lingering for a moment, he looked at her face with one of those smiles.

What the hell, thought Blossom, she was in a bad mood with Sonic anyway.

* * *

MJ had never got on well in school. Despite her apparent chirpiness around family and friends, she still had a quiet, brooding side to her, a legacy perhaps of her spider adjustments to her brain. Add on to that some bad experience with bullies when young, and it was clear that the kid was not very good at social interactions. Her appearance didn't help either, the two large and sharp mandible teeth and slightly lanky yet muscular arms added to her strange appearance. 

Things had never got better, partly because of these problems, and partly because MJ refused to attempt it. There was no question of her trying to blend in to any group of kids (be that those who conformed to the media and social expectations and those who made a point of not) preferring to brood on her ambitions and quietly get good grades while hoping just to be ignored. The thing is that avoiding problems (i.e. bullying) in school by trying to be ignored is a surprisingly difficult trick to pull off. So by the time she had reached the final year of elementary school, MJ had failed it abysmally.

Having missed the first two days of school like her brother, the young spider-puff tried to slip into the back of the class room quietly and just take a seat. The teacher hadn't arrived yet, and nor had most of her class mates – those who were there left her completely alone. Still, MJ badly wished that her teacher would arrive before the majority of the class did. Today, as always, she was out of luck.

A crowd of them entered, chatting loudly as always, but MJ stuck out in the room like a sore thumb. Nudging each other expectantly, the crowd of about ten sauntered over, and there leader, a girl of (obviously) MJ's age who dressed as if she was at least eight years older then that, stepped forward. MJ tried to avoid eye contact until the last possible moment.

"That's my seat," she barked. MJ looked up as a brief round to giggles circulated the crowd. She could have said something in reply, but that would have just given them an excuse to mock her for her voice, which had also been slightly twisted by her mutation. So she merely gathered her stuff, and moved off to another seat. The other girl watched her go.

"That's mine too," she said instantly. "And that one," when MJ had moved on again." At this point the she stopped, and summing up all of her courage, managed to reply without a quaver in her voice.

"Vicky," she managed, "which one isn't your seat"

However, a massive smile had spread over Vicky's face, a smile that showed she'd found a new target. "What's that you've got there?" she demanded, striding straight forward (followed rapidly by her entourage) grabbing MJ's jaw and wrenching it open. "Those braces made of gold are they," she said pinging them, as MJ gagged desperately. She knew that she could easily just close her mouth and sever those fingers holding it open. It would serve her right, and taste better then Edward's breakfast too. Sure, they'd probably pile on her after wards, but MJ knew she could have taken out the entire school even if they all attacked her at once. She was easily strong enough. But the last time she'd bitten someone had been during an argument with her brother, and Dad had told her if she ever did it again the only thing she'd be getting for Christmas was a muzzle. Of course both Eddy and Blossom would be willing to make exceptions, but being a child, MJ didn't assume that. "They're the most value part of you, you fat bitch!" Vicky continued viscously, before she pushed her backwards hard, causing MJ to trip and fall on to the floor. Everyone laughed of course, along with muttering insults under their breath, before the teacher arrived and order was restored.

MJ pulled herself into a seat and tried to regain her composer. She took a deep breath and focused. One day, she'd be the strongest and most powerful superhero ever, and then all these losers would look up to her. One day.

Not today though. When the lesson was over it was break time, when MJ generally tried to find some where out of the way to hide (often by climbing up one of the walls around the back.) Today however, she got into trouble before she got that far. It started with the hurling of paper and coins at her from a few predictable quarters on her way out, but when she got to the top of the stairs in a crowd of people, her spider sense went off immediately. She jumped over the leg that had been put out to trip her, but while in the air there was a push in the back just to make sure, and MJ found herself in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. Staggering to her feet amidst the usual laughing and hurling of insults and sarcastic comments, she looked back up the stairs at the ones that had assaulted her.

Gary, Vicky's "Boyfriend" (as ten years don't really truly understand the concept) was laughing loudest of all. "You should look where your going you clumsy twat," he laughed, "can't you even manage to walk downstairs with out tripping"

MJ knew that there was no possible response could improve the situation, so she was intending just to walk away ignoring them, when she heard a voice that made her run cold.

"She would have if you hadn't pushed her," it said, not in an accusing tone, but almost as if it was a statement of a well known fact. There was only one person that 'innocent' for it to belong to, and there was nothing MJ hated more then SP sticking up for her.

Gary turned angrily to the black hair, purple eyed spider-puff. "No one asked you, you freak"

"I know that," replied Sandra Patricia as if it had been a genuine question, "but you did push her. How would you like it if it was done to you? Maybe you should think about these things"

SP last line was drowned out by laugher; Gary was the renowned hard-man of the school. He just laughed. "I'm not that clumsy or stupid," he chuckled.

SP shrugged. "Okay," she said simply, before turning her back to walk away. Then, after just one step, she did a high jumping back flip over the top of Gary, landed behind the startled kid and then administered the gentlest of taps to his back, just enough so send him crashing down the stairs. "Nope, you're wrong about that," she said in the tone of a scientist conducting an experiment, as the crowd went silent and took a step back. And with that she pottered off quite happily to join her small group of friends (most of whom appreciated SP for her protection, initially at least.) MJ gave her death stares as they went past. She couldn't stand it when the little runt did that. It annoyed her more that Buttercup allowed her to fight back; it meant that MJ would receive the retribution for the incident latter on.

* * *

Sonic nodded sagely. "Alright, I'll contact you later on that one … Yes I understand that it's urgent, but I have heard information from more reliable sources before that's been wrong, and besides I've got company" 

The company was Blossom, who was waiting outside. Sonic put the phone down and waved her in. Blossom herself was worried about this; Sonic could be very unpredictable with people when it came to there personal lives interfering with work, and there was always a chance he'd try to humiliate her.

As it was, he waited until the door of the office was almost closed before saying "So you finally stop screwing Brick for long enough to come to work," at an unnecessarily high volume. Blossom jumped and slammed the door quickly.

"I thought you'd had your fill of revenge yesterday," she snapped.

"Yesterday?" Sonic said with mock confusion, "yesterday was merely me telling the truth at an inappropriate moment… or more getting Gohan to tell the truth at an inappropriate moment. Besides, that's in the past now, lets move on"

"It may be in the past for you but it's still very much in my present!" Blossom replied angrily.

"I know that I do read the papers," Sonic tossed a selection of tabloids across his desk towards her. "Anyway, I've arranged for you to do an interview this evening with on of the more friendly newspapers, just so you can straighten this mess out quickly. We wouldn't want it to spark a press campaign against the SSR, now would we," he finished in his most patronising voice.

"No, of course not," Blossom growled. Sonic just ignored it.

"Right, well since you weren't here this morning I let my son-in-law do your work..."

"You mean Crash!"

"… so you can start by cleaning up the mess he made, and then I need you to..."

However before be got any further, the door to the office was thrown open, and the door way was filled by Cyclops, Batman, Wonder Women, Robert Reed and Piccolo – the five most senior superheroes other then Sonic and Blossom. When they were together, it only meant one of two things; crisis or Union meeting and Blossom doubted it was the latter by the looks on their faces.

"It's been verified," was all Cyclops said, while Blossom tried to ignore the withering looks of hatred from the two former justice leaguers. The irritating thing was that Piccolo was studying her too.

Sonic looked perplexed, and his feet swung off the desk on to the floor. This worried Blossom even more since Sonic should have been shouting at them for not knocking. Eventually he appeared to reach a decision.

"Give me an hour with these guys and come back Blossom," he ordered. Blossom was somewhat taken aback.

"Don't you need my input?" she asked, trying not to sound surprised.

"No, its… superhuman stuff," Sonic said lamely. As always, Blossom could tell he was lying, but he looked so worried that she didn't raise it any further.

But, after leaving, back in her own office, Blossom began to worry. Surely, if it was as serious as it looked, Sonic would want to consult her. The lack of her powers hadn't stopped him before, in fact it seemed to have made him request her advice more. There were only two explanations; either this meeting was about her, or she'd lost Sonic's respect and trust. The certainty in her mind that it was the latter hurt.

* * *

Edward had survived his day without too many disasters and only the expected number of annoying questions, and he was just walking over to the bus home when he got a phone call on his mobile. A quick glance at the screen showed that it was home, which annoyed him, since as Mum wouldn't be home (unless she'd never gone to work) then there was only one person it could be. 

"WHAT!" he snapped.

"You need to go pick up MJ from school," replied Brick, who also wasted no time on pleasantries.

"Why! Why can't you do it"

"Don't blame me," Brick snapped, "I was just resting at home when MJ's school called and some very irritable person said that MJ had had to stay behind because she'd been pushed down the stairs or something stupid, and had missed the bus. They wanted me to pick her up but I don't know where the school is, so I said I'd send you"

"But it'll take me an hour to walk there!" protested Edward, "and then another hour and a half to get home. Can't you use a map or just fly around and look for it"

"No," replied Brick curtly, "the walk will be good for you, son," and he hung up before Edward could hurl abuse.

After explaining to his friends what a jerk his "father" was and waving away the bus, Edward started the long trudge to MJ's school. It was also the school that he'd been expelled from for beating up two kids that had been picking on her. He wondered how they'd react to seeing him again.

It hadn't helped anyway. As far as Edward was concerned, his sister was still being picked on and pushed around. It made him furious, even if it had no effect on that bastard Brick (not true, see Tangled Web chapter 3, I think mg56). But he wasn't a child at that school anymore, so what could they do to him if he took matters into his own hands? Those bullies better not be around…

But that was what Brick would have said. He tried to calm down. He wasn't a ruff, whatever his DNA said. He was far better then that. While Edward is sulking, it would be worth us taking a moment to look at his mind set objectively. But I am never objective, so lets be subjective and stereotypical.

Edward is a teenage boy. This means one important thing; he thinks he knows everything. All of them do – I did (until I tried to do vector spaces at university.) But Brick assertion of him being a middle class snob isn't entirely fair, Edward thought much too highly of himself and his morals to be one of those irritating dinner party types who just sit and talk about how celebrities are great, society is breaking down and that all working class people should sell there children so that they can by an electric car, and stop going on holiday because there destroying the planet. These are middle class snobs, and Edward would look down on them too, from his self appointed lofty position.

Don't hate it, all boys of his age are like this, however they cover it on the outside. Come on, it you're a 15 year old boy reading this, admit it. I've got you covered here.

Not convinced? Okay, there's another trait that you and Edward have (and I still do to an extent.) You, as he, believe that the world is black and white, and everything can be put into boxes. Right and wrong, gay and straight (no offence meant), cool and lame etc. This applied to people too, and it's important for me to explain this, as it will help with what happens next.

All the boys in Edward's school were categorised by his brain. There were about five categories which he labelled as such; Cool gits (for the top of the tree, the tough guys who were popular and feared,) cool nice (for the cool kids who where secure enough not to pick on people, and generally quite smart,) average (Edward's group, those who weren't cool but didn't annoy those who were, some of them were smart, some not), boffin (the smart people who just didn't realise that it was tactful to down play your intelligence while working hard in the background) and the miscellaneous (the polite word for the stupid misfits.) This wasn't a malicious thing, it was just how his brain organised who to be friends with and whom to avoid. Of course not everyone fitted the system, but most people Edward forced to fit.

The female groups were far easier to divide, and were arranged like this; Bitches (you know the type, dress like hookers and can't go a week with out a spectacular incident just to make sure they're the centre of attention,) Goths (the exact opposite, people who in Edward's opinion went out there way not to be a fashion conscious looser), stable (the girls who wouldn't rip his head off if he accidentally bumped into them in a crowded corridor, or would let him speak if they were doing group work) and clueless (what it says on the tin.) In this case, Edward tried to avoid all of them as much as possible, in case he became the subject of a trashy roomer/got shouted at a lot. In his eyes teenage girls were a lot more trouble then they were worth. Better to keep you pants on and bide your time for a few years then to try and deal with a walking mine field of emotions. Besides, who would want an ugly bastard like him?

Of course these were all Edward's opinions, and almost all of them were wrong. But he was a teenage boy, so the possibility of him being wrong could not possibly enter his head.

Anyway, bearing this in mind, we can return to reality. Edward approaching MJ's school at last, and when his sister saw him, (she was waiting with outside a teacher,) she jumped up and sprinted away from the school and towards the gate to greet him. Edward smiled and waved to her, and as he did someone jogged past him, (a person for about three quarters his height)

MJ ran straight out the without looking where she was really going, and ran straight into the newcomer with a thud, taking a knee to the chin in the process. As MJ staggered back a moment, the person gave her a brief glance of what Edward (who was now about four yards behind) assumed was a look of disgust before giving a (admittedly gentle) push away on the forehead, with the words "Out of the way kid"  
This landed MJ on her bottom again with a jolt, and cause Edward to completely flip. The stress of the last few days had become too much, and he was dammed if anyone was ever going to hurt his sister again.

With a look of pure hatred on his face, he strode straight past MJ and up to her "aggressor." From behind he quickly worked out a few more 'facts.' She was a girl of about 12 to 13? So he couldn't hit her, but he could still give her a fright.  
"Err, Excuse me!" he shouted, saying "err" in only the way an extremely angry person can, and before the girl could turn around, he'd grabbed her on the shoulder, spun her around, taken her by the scruff of the neck and lifted her clean off the ground, holding her up against the school railings. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU..."

That was as far as he got, because (as usual) Edward had completely miscalculated. Rather then just scaring a young punk kid who should learn some manors, Edward was holding a lot a fully fledged (although admittedly short) girl of about his age. She had pale skin and dark eyes to match her equally dark clothes, and dark 'lavada' hair (not too rare in a cartoon.) All of these put her in his 'Goth' category, which meant that theses were normally the type of people he tried to avoid to keep out of trouble. And now he was holding one up by the scruff of her neck. You wouldn't need to be a scientist to know the situation was "awkward"

So Edward stopped. He was painfully aware that he was sweating. "err… what I mean to say," he said loosening his grip slightly, "was"  
He got no further, because the girl (who had never looked remotely concerned during the ordeal) had merely scowled for a moment, before socking him hard in the stomach with a strong left fist. Very hard. In fact it knocked the stuffing out of Edward, who was quickly on his knees gasping for breath. The girl studied him for a moment, before simply declaring "fool," and striding off.

As Edward tried to regain his feet, he supposed that he probably deserved that. He'd never have done it if he'd know her age, that was for sure, and he shouldn't have done it anyway. But when he glanced over at his whimpering sister, his anger rose again. He may have been in the wrong, but it didn't make what had happened to MJ any less of an outrage (in his opinion)

Before he could reflect more on this however, a tall figure was standing over him, having already helped up MJ. To Edward's horror, it was his old head mistress, Mrs. Holfield. The one who had expelled him. This wasn't good.

"Hi…" he stuttered pathetically gasping for breath, but to his surprise the sky didn't fall on his head. Instead Mrs. Holfield spoke kindly.

"MJ's got a little cut, I think we ort to get that fixed up inside," she said. "And I'd like a word with you Edward, if I may"

"Oh, great."

* * *


	15. What Goes Around

Okay, I know. Huge delay, short chapter, one word; coursework. Enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**14. What Goes Around**

As MJ was being cleaned up in the medical room, Edward sat on one of the benches in the school corridor catching his breath. He was sure that they used to by higher, he couldn't have grown that much. Still, it had been along time since he'd been here. Nostalgically, he thought back to his days at school here, a simpler time, when MJ was a normal human, when he had had no idea about his powers. A time when a Brick was something you made houses with, not his farther. Despite his eventual expulsion, he had some good memories of this place.

Still when the person who'd expelled him walk out of the medical room (without MJ) and over towards him, he stiffened wearily. But he didn't need anymore problems right now, so it was best to be polite.

As is was, Mrs Holfeild did what most teachers do when they've done something wrong, and spoke to him as if the event had never taken place. "Now Edward," she said formally, "I just want to speak to you for a moment about MJ if you don't mind."

"No, not at all," lied Edward in equally formal tones. If Mrs Holfeild saw through them, she didn't say.

"You see we're all very worried about MJ at the moment. According to her teacher she's not contributing to discussions in class despite being one of the most intelligent students in school, and she seems to have difficulty in dealing with… negative social situations."

"I see," muttered Edward, biting his tongue.

"Now not all of these are her fault and we are now going to put procedures into place to keep a closer eye on her in school," the Headmistress continued, "but I think it would be very useful for her if you could please keep an eye on her outside school, just so if there are any… issues the school can help her come to terms with them."

Edward had been nodding throughout; it was good to see that they were finally keen to crack down on MJ's oppressors and help his sister. But something was bothering him.

"With all due respect," he said politely, "isn't this the sort of conversation you should be holding with MJ's – my – Mum and Dad? I mean, I'd always try to look after her, but I'm not her legal guardian or anything."

"Yes," said Mrs Holfeild, in the pained manor of someone who wanted to say something but couldn't, "but your mother is very busy and your farther… well you know more about that then me obviously. All I know is that I got a," she spat the next works, "very curt "gentleman" on the phone when I called home earlier, so I don't know if…" she stalled.

"They are very dependable?" suggested Edward.

"Oh no, I'd never say that, I'd…"

"Only think it," replied Edward, but not with malice. Mrs Holfeild sighed.

"You're a bright person Edward," she said, "I'm sure you'll do what's best for MJ." And with that she left.

In the intervening moments until MJ emerged, Edward has too things to muse on. Firstly, he was still annoyed. Of course, he'd always tried to look out for MJ, but that had always been because he's wanted to, not because he had to. Now it appeared he was the only one who could, and it was a lot of responsibility. Not the sort of thing you'd want to trust to a 15 year old kid, or that should be put on one.

Secondly, the thought of Brick having an argument with Mrs Holfeild just made him smile. Oh to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation. The one thing that did confuse him from it was whether he felt better towards his former Headmistress or his biological farther for it.

Still, he'd work that out latter, because MJ was now in the corridor, with a small plaster on her knee, looking tear full and pathetic in only the way younger siblings can. Edward wondered over and scooped her up into a bid reassuring hug. "Come on," he said, let's get you home."

* * *

Thanks to all the work she had to catch up on and the interview with the journalist Sonic had demanded she do, Blossom wasn't home until gone Seven. Having reached the front door without being noticed, Blossom crept in quietly, acutely aware that any potential shouting going on might end before she could find out about it if the participants were aware of her presence.

As it was, there was no such shouting, but the house was lacking something. Maybe it was atmosphere, the place seemed quiet, other then the sound of the television coming from the lounge. Blossom pushed open the door to see Brick lounged on the sofa. He looked up with delight when he saw her.

"Hi Bloss," he said, "What's for dinner, I'm starving."

That was the difference; Blossom had got used to coming home after a long day to find dinner nearly ready. Eddy had always enjoyed cooking; it gave him a chance to show off his creativity and to make a huge mess at the same time. Blossom supposed this was a rare trait for a husband, and although Eddy's dinners were generally fat ridden and sloppy, at least they where there.

"What exactly have you done today," she asked calmly, a bit unhappy that Brick hadn't asked how hers had been. Brick read the slight hint of danger in her voice and sat up.

"Well I, umm, tired not to make a mess?" he suggested. "I have been in Hell for the last four years, I could do with a rest," he went on to protest as Blossom gave him a disapproving look. "Why what should I be doing."

"I'm tired, so you could help me cook super for a start," Blossom snapped. She swung on her heal and strode towards the kitchen. Brick followed quickly, but here in lay the other difference between him and Eddy; Brick could get away with upsetting Blossom because he knew which buttons to press. Sure enough, Blossom found a hand on her arse and when he turned round to ball him out, she instead found her mouth in his. She anger evaporated in a moment of typical passion.

Eventually they broke again, both with a huge smile on there faces. Brick chuckled quietly. "I did have a very exhausting morning," he said, "and I was hoping to have an equally hard night…"

Blossom's smile had frozen how ever, as she'd seen something over his shoulder. "Hi Edward," she said quickly, taking half a step away from Brick. The older red ruff swung around to see his son, standing behind him with a pale look on his face.

"You're obviously busy, I'll come back later," Edward said hurriedly, and he sprinted back up stairs.

Blossom watched him go, and then to Brick's surprise burst into a fit of laughter. "We've got to stop doing that sort of thing in front of the kids," she giggled. "I want them to think that sexual relations are a beautiful thing, and they won't believe that if they see their mum indulging in it!"

"I think there Mum having sexual relations is the most beautiful thing in the world," Brick said softly, putting his arms back around her, while making a mental note to caress Blossom in front of Edward as much as possible. If it put him off sex then that was surely a good thing considering Him's contract.

Blossom kissed him once more, but only briefly. "I'm hungry, let's go cook." As they went into the kitchen, Blossom decided to bring the question of what Brick should be doing all day again. "You're not going to want to spend the rest of your life lying around here are you?"

"Of course not."

"Right, then if you get a social security number and then we can get you a job… Probably at the SSR if you want."

Brick nodded, and then paused. "Say, how am I going get the number?"

"I don't know," Blossom paused. "Perhaps you could call the immigration office and try to convince them that your alive again." she paused for a moment, looking sourly at the pots and pans in the kitchen. "And perhaps we should order a take away."

* * *

Bubbles closed the door of the press room and collapsed into a near by chair. Boomer, who'd been waiting patiently, drifted over to her. "Difficult session?" he asked.

Bubbles didn't need to answer, the way she was griping the arm of the chair told it all. Still, she eventually did answer. "Do they actually think I was the one who had the illegitimate child and then dumped my husband for Brick! I mean I can't control her, and nor would I want to!"

"They're just journalists," Boomer tried to reassure, "they're only doing their jobs, trying to get a good story…"

"Yeah, and they're doing it by getting in the way of my job!" Bubbles snapped. "There are more important things for this country to worry about then who's in Blossom's bed and what I think about it, but try telling that to the average journalists. They're just a bunch of vultures!" She shook her head furiously. "If they think I'm going to denounce Blossom for it then they are very much mistaken. I can't loose both my sisters."

Boomer waited for her to calm down a bit, before giving her a hung. "Why do you do it?" he asked. "Why don't you just settle for a simple life?"

"We've been through this before," Bubbles responded quietly. "I want to make a difference. I want to change the world for the better, and if I don't have my powers to do it with, then I believe that I can change it this way."

Boomer bent down and gave her a kiss. "Forget the world," he muttered, "what about you? Don't you want to have a family?"

Bubbles smiled. "Well… there's no harm in trying. If I don't want one now, who knows in five years?"

"And do you want one now?" Boomer asked. Bubbles chuckled.

"Possibly," she replied, but gave little for what she'd told Blossom earlier. She did want a family, badly, and now she knew there was a good chance that she would actually be able to have a child, there was no reason not to give it a go. But if Boomer was hoping that she'd give up her political ambitions for it he was wrong. Bubbles had to prove something to her self – and to Buttercup; that she could handle power without being corrupted. The whole chaos energy incident had left her confidence in tatters, and Bubbles was desperate to rebuild it. A responsible, mature and successful political career would leave her in no doubt that she could never fall again like she'd fallen before. With that in her back pocket, maybe – just maybe – she'd be able to convince Buttercup too.

* * *

The evening and morning had passed off with limited incident at the Panner household, mainly because Brick and Edward had declined to say anything to each other, and MJ had been too excited about getting to talk to Brick about her Mum's old superhero days to bring up her own problems.

As a result, Edward was in a slightly low key mood when he arrived at school. He'd kept an eye on MJ in the morning, and all seemed to be well (although the fact that it was Brick making her well had annoyed him to a degree), so he'd done his bit. Now it was just a matter of getting through the school day without incident.

It was all rather depressing, and stressful to be honest. Having to come home every evening and getting up ever morning to find the house occupied by the loud, rude, opinionated git that clamed to be his father was driving him mad. It worried Edward greatly; sure he only had three more years at home really, but he didn't think he could stand that much of living with Brick. Something had to change.

Maybe he could go live with his dad… sorry Eddy. Possibly, but the authorities would not like it, and could he really just walk out on MJ? And what about his Mum? Could he really reject her like that? As much as Edward liked to think that Blossom deserved to be punished for what she had done, he still loved her. He certainly didn't want to make her suffer. Besides, revenge is a dish best served cold. One day, Edward told himself, he'd have a happy family, with a loving wife and mentally healthy children, and he'd shove it in her face! In a loving way of course.

This was all in the future however, because for the present his largest problem was the impending maths lesson. Edward didn't like maths very much, despite the fact that he was fairly good at it. Or good enough to struggle in the top set rather then having a cushy ride in set 2. Having missed the start of school this was to be Edward's first maths lesson of the year, so he didn't really know what to expect.

When he got to the door, his teacher, Mr. Stead was standing at the door. He eyed him intently.

"Panner, where were you on Monday!" he barked.

A short, yet polite answer was required here. "I was in Wales sir."

"Well you missed a lot of work," Mr. Stead sniffed. "I expect you to catch it all up by tomorrow, okay?" Normally Edward would have argued, but he knew better then to question the wishes of his maths teacher, who was of the ex-army mould. So he just nodded efficiently. "Good," the teacher continued. "Right, take a seat next to Alice and I'll get you a text book."

Edward nodded, and took one step towards the seat that he had been directed towards when he stopped dead. In the next door chair, eyeing him with the sort of expression that one usually reserves for a dog's mess on the pavement, was the girl that had thumped him yesterday…


	16. Edward's Exploit

Okay, coursework is over and Formula one has started! So I'm in the sort of mood to write my second longest chapter ever. I hope you like it.

**15. Edward's Exploit**

Now it's always worth remembering that I'm English. I like tea, marmite and (Association) football. Thus, if I could find any excuse, this story would not be set in America, but in a small village just north of Cheltenham, possibly with a small pub involved. Unfortunately, in England we're far too cynical for Super beings, and as for heroes, the ideal English hero is someone who comes a brave second place. This is no good if the winner gets to destroy the world.

So, as a result, the story stays set in America. Thus Edward and Alice are American. This is a problem, because if they were British, they would have been able to spend the entire maths lesson sitting next to each other in complete silence, ignoring each other completely, or at least pretending not to recognise the other from the previous day.

Instead they only managed half the lesson, although Edward only did start talking when he got fed up of trying to solve quadratics with daggers being silently shot up him from next door.

"Hi, listen," he said abruptly without warning, "I'm sorry about yesterday, it was very unreasonable and unnecessary of me to attack you like that," – as there was no immediate response, Edward quickly clicked into the this-is-an-embassaring-situation-but-if-I-keep-talking-it-might-get-better mode, "but I'm going through a bit of a tough time at the moment with my family right now because My mum and dad are breaking up and she's replacing him with this new guy who's a jerk so I'm feeling a bit more protective then normal towards my sister at the moment, but…"

"Once you start talking, do you ever stop?" responded Alice, who'd given up trying to ignore him. Edward stopped.

"Err…"

"Besides," she continued proudly, "my parent's don't live together yet I don't feel the need to grab random passers by round the throat."

"No, just to punch them in the stomach," responded Edward quickly, but then he clicked. "Wait, you're parent's don't live together?"

"Your sharp," replied Alice sarcastically. Edward ignored the jab, since he'd just found a lead.

"Is your mum single then, or do you have a step Dad?"

Alice turned to look at him for the first time. She studied the red Ruff for a few moments, before turning back to her work. "Not that it's any of your business, but she is very happily married, yes."

"How does that work then… with you?"

"Why should I tell you that?" Alice snapped. Edward refused to be flustered.

"Because I'm desperate," he replied, and he was. The fears he harboured that there was no solution to his problem with Brick; that they would make the next years of his life a living Hell, still burned deeply inside. Any sort of evidence that could show he was being paranoid and that things could get better in time was more then welcome, and as bizarre as it seemed, there was a chance that the required evidence was sitting next to him, in the form of the pale skin slightly withdrawn Gothic girl. Okay, it was a long shot, but one he was willing to take.

Alice sniffed. "You're weak," she said.

"I know," replied Edward instantly. He knew what he was doing here. Girls generally expect men to try and appear strong and macho in front of them. They certainly don't expect them to openly show any element of weakness how ever blindingly obvious that weakness maybe. Edward gambled on breaking this pattern for two reasons. Firstly, it would make Alice feel as if she was in control, and would catch her off guard. And secondly, being so secure in his sexuality made him feel superior to others.

In the first objective, it defiantly seemed to work. Alice stopped writing and paused for a moment. Then she leant over and had a look at his work, running her finger down the page muttering, "That's wrong, that ones wrong, that's wrong… You don't seem to be very good at this," she chuckled. "If you like I can help you with it after school, to let you catch up."

If that was a disguised offer to help him with his other problems then Edward was always going to accept. Besides, it would mean he wouldn't have to see Brick again quiet so soon.

* * *

Brick was by now feed up with computers. "You stupid Website!" he bellowed at the blinking screen. "All I want to do is find the telephone number for the social security office! How fucking hard can that be!!"

The computer said nothing for a moment, and then, just to prove that it was not only able to understand him, but also (like all computers) naturally evil, it declared in a depressingly small error box that internet explorer had committed an illegal operation and was going to shut down. If it had been Brick's computer at this point he would have thrown the monitor through the wall. Being Blossom's however, he had to settle for just giving it a good smack.

So Brick gave up with the internet for the day and flopped onto the sofa. This was stupid, what was he going to do for the rest of his life if he couldn't get a job. Blossom wasn't exactly going to be keen for him to spend the rest of his life sitting around at home. He was going to have to do something.

Into his mind suddenly popped something he could be doing, for the moment at least; stopping Edward from having a child. He grabbed the phone and paused for a moment – who would be the best to call for advice, Boomer or Butch? Then he refined the question to who would be least likely to tell there wife about it who would then inevitably tell Blossom? That answer was obvious; Butch was liable to be a lot more sensitive on the subject of stopping people from having children, and Buttercup was a far better interrogator. So it was Boomer who moments latter was answering then phone.

"Hi Brick," he said cheerfully, "to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Listen Boomer, I need you advice on something," Brick said earnestly. He then had to wait for Boomer to recover before continuing. "How do you stop people from having babies?"

"Pardon?"

"I said…"

"I know what you said," Boomer interrupted confusedly, "but why would you want to… and why ask me?"

"Well I, err, made a little deal with Him to be able to get out of Hell," Brick explained, "and with out going into too many details, let's just say I'd prefer – I mean that it would be better for all of us if Edward wasn't to have a child… at least until I've sorted it all out. And I'm asking you because seeing as Bubbles a republican I'd have thought you'd be all for people not having sex."

"Yeah right!" Boomer laughed "Have you met Bubbles? Medium height, blond, sexiest girl in the world?"

"Only in you're eyes," Brick replied, although he suspected that wasn't entirely true. "Look, are you going to help me or not?"

"Humm," Boomer thought for a moment. "Have you tried telling Edward?"

"Are you mad? He hates me, he'd be bound to tell Blossom, and then I'd be dead."

"Well, how about getting him to have an aids test and faking the results?"

"Be serious Boomer."

"Okay, okay," the Blue ruff thought for a bit longer this time. It wasn't something he was famous for, but he gave it a good go. "Well, you reckon you can sort this contract thing right?"

"If given enough time, yes," Brick said, as the front door slammed shut from someone returning home, and then stomping upstairs.

"Then you only need to delay him," Boomer said. "Perhaps you should convince him that he mustn't have unprotected – or indeed any – sex before marriage. He's hardly like to be engaged anytime soon, so that should get you the time you need."

"And how am I going to do that?" asked Brick hotly.

"Simply enough," replied Boomer quickly, "just suggest to him that if he's not careful, one day he could end up being the father of an illegitimate, resentful child like you are. That should put him right off."

"Thanks," replied Brick slightly pissed, but there was no denying that Boomer had a point. It might just work in delaying Edward enough so as to make sure that he had enough time to deal with Him.

So after thanking Boomer, Brick put the phone down and decided to investigate the thudding that had occurred during the call. For all he knew it was his delinquent son returning home in time for another sulk.

Brick was wrong though. A quick study revelled that it was not Edward, but MJ that had returned. Brick supposed he should have worked that out, it was the correct time of day, but he was too busy being concerned about the child. With an entrance like that, it was liable she was upset about something.

When he reached the door of MJ's room Brick considered just knocking or going in, but he stopped. What if the poor child was weeping inside, and what if it was because she missed her daddy? Brick didn't know if he would be able to handle that, so carefully, he used his x-ray vision to have a look.

MJ was upset, but she wasn't crying. Instead she was doing press ups on the floor of the room, grunting angrily to herself but performing them with effortless ease. Brick watch for a while, relieved, but in a strange way upset. He wished that MJ had been his daughter rather then Edward his son. She had so much more fighting spirit then Edward, and Brick really felt a connection with Eddy's daughter.

Then a though occurred to him; Edward was his son but would never accept him as his Dad, but maybe MJ would accept him even though she could never be his daughter. It was time to install some Ruff spirit into the spider-puff.

Brick knocked on the door. MJ stopped doing press ups and sat up. "Come in," she said.

"Hi MJ," Brick said friendlily, "How was you day at school?"

"Good!" lied MJ. Brick raised an eyebrow inquiringly, and MJ immediately cracked. "It was alright," she muttered, looking away but it was too late to pretend.

"Come on MJ," Brick smiled sitting down next to her. "What's the matter? You can tell me, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me too."

MJ looked up, her eyes filled with a lack of confidence. "Oh, just some people picking on me in school, mainly this girl called Vicky," she spat the name angrily. Good, thought Brick, anger is good.

"Really? What does she do?" he asked.

"All sorts," muttered MJ. When Brick didn't respond she was forced to go on. "Mainly she mocks and insults me, and occasionally she hits me… but it's not fair! I can never think of any clever come backs or anything…"

"That shouldn't matter," Brick replied. He was angry too now, although not with MJ. "Is she stronger then you?"

"Course not!"

"Then how come she gets away with it?"

"Mum doesn't like me hitting people," MJ replied, with an element of frustration in her voice, "she says she doesn't want me to grow up to be a thug. And dad says that I should fight with my tongue and not my fists, because resorting to violence means that you've lost the argument."

"Your Dad's an idiot!" snapped Brick, before reigning himself in, "I mean he doesn't understand what you're going through. I'm sure if you were attacked he'd want you to defend yourself. What about Butch's kid, does she get bullied too?"

"What, that reject SP?" MJ asked, showing completely distain for her fellow spider-puff, "a bit, but she seems to be immune to verbal attacks because she's so stupid, and if anyone physically attacks her she responds."

"Do her parent's complain?"

"Only that she didn't hit them hard enough," MJ sulked. "Git."

Brick couldn't help but laugh, just for a moment. "Alright MJ, this is going to stop."

MJ blinked. "How? Are you going to talk to the school?"

"Pah!" Brick snorted. "We don't need them, you can fix it yourself. The next time that Vicky attacks you physically, you hit her as hard as you like, okay? Use all that superhuman strength of yours, alright? I'll explain it to Blossom – I mean your mum."

MJ smiled, the light in the room glinting off her braces. "Really?"

"Yep, from now on you take no crap from anyone."

"Great… no wait, what if she verbally attacks me?"

"Humm," Brick thought for a moment. "I reckon your come backs are probably pretty good, but if everyone's scared of this Vicky person then no ones going to laugh at her, so that won't work. Tell you what will though," he said chirpily, "waiting."

"Waiting?"

"Yes, waiting until the day she shows weakness. You know, mother's ill, cat dies, she breaks up with her boyfriend etc."

"And then I try to be nice to her?" MJ asked, fearing that that might be the next suggestion.

Brick laughed. "Au contra," he chuckled. "You release all that stored up anger from all her mockery of you, and you unleash it on her then and there, destroying her completely while she's down, until she's on her knees, begging you for mercy!"

The smile spread across MJ's face once more. "Yeah," she chuckled happily. "That's a good idea…"

"It's the Ruff way," Brick laughed. "From know on, you make the rules, got it!"

MJ stood up and saluted. "Yes sir!" she barked.

"That's a good girl," Brick smiled, mussing up her hair. MJ giggled, a bit of acid dripping from her teeth.

"Say, what have you been doing today Brick?" she asked, the child like innocence suddenly returning to her.

"Oh, nothing much, I've just been trying to find a phone number for some government department on the internet."

MJ blinked. "Why don't you just call directory inquires?" she asked. Brick paused, his expression frozen.

"If you'll excuse me for just a moment," he said tightly without changing his expression, "I'm just going to go make a phone call." MJ laughed as he left, before returning to her press ups with new found intent.

* * *

School was also by now over for Edward, and he was waiting slightly edgily by the front gate. Things can change very quickly in high school especially, and he was beginning to wonder if his stroke of genius from the maths lesson this morning had been such a good idea.

When two of his friends came by, (Paul and Jamie) he was sure it wasn't. Because now he was going to have to explain it. "Come on Edward," call Paul, "be quick now or we'll miss the bus."

"Err, I'm not taking the bus today," Edward replied.

"What, again?" Jamie stopped. "Why, has that bastard Brick told you to do something that he's too lazy to do himself again?"

"No," replied Edward, "I'm just getting some help with my catching up from someone."

The some one was a big mistake, because it could only lead to enquires. "Who?" asked Paul.

"A friend," replied Edward coolly, but no where near coolly enough.

"Which friend?"

"A friend" repeated Edward firmly. Jamie chuckled.

"A lady friend by any chance?"

"No!" snapped Edward, but it was too late.

"Ooo," cooed Paul mockingly. "Hoping to make a move are we? To have some fun?"

"Certainly not," Edward spat. "I'm not my father! Besides, why would she want to anyway?"

"Obviously you never listen in to the girls conversations," Paul continued.

"Why would I, they do my head in," Edward stormed, but there was no getting away from it.

Jamie was preparing his impression. " "Oh that Edward is sooo hot, and quiet tooo I bet he's really sweet and nice inside… a bit soft though…"" and then they both almost rolled over with laughter.

"They do not say that!" Edward stormed. "Besides, even if they do, she's just a friend…"

"I don't recall ever saying we were friends," said Alice from behind him. Edward immediately wished he was dead, as Paul and Jamie immediately struggled to suppress the smirks from charging across their faces.

"Sure," they chuckled, before running off to the bus singing like ten year olds.

"THIS IS ONLY BECAUSE NEITHER OF YOU TWO OFFERED!!" Edward shouted after them, before something clicked and he turned to Alice, who was looking surprisingly smug behind him. "How long have you been there," he asked weakly.

"Long enough," she chuckled, "now let's get going." As she strolled past, Edward found himself sizing her up properly for the first time. She was quiet short, even for a girl of her age, but it didn't seem to affect her confidence at all. His eyes naturally floated down to her bottom, which was in his eyes an almost perfect shape, reasonably but not overly large and following nicely from her hips in a good old fashioned curve, before he pulled them off again. That wasn't what he was here for, he needed to stay focused. Still, was it possible she had a slight crush on him? He had another peep. For it's nice shape, there was something about it that wasn't quite normal.

Still, time for that later. He walked up along side. "Err… shouldn't we be going the other way?" he asked. "I mean, if you're house is past my sister's school, then we need to go that way."

"That's my Mum's house," replied Alice abruptly. "On Thursdays I stay with my Dad."

"Ah, will he mind?"

Alice shrugged. "He won't be in. Not until late anyway, he runs a big company or something. I don't really know… or care. Granddad and Grandma might be in though."

"Your Dad lives with his parents?"

"Yep," Alice replied.

"That's a bit pathetic," Edward said before he could stop himself, but to his surprise Alice didn't bite his head off.

"You wait," she said, before pausing. "He is a bit of a weakling, but I don't suppose that matters to the likes of you."

What's that supposed to mean? Edward wondered, but instead he decided to push on with the interrogation. "So what happened between him and your mum?" he asked boldly. "Are they divorced or was it a one night thing."

"It's a lot more complex then that," replied Alice in the tone of someone who doesn't want to talk about that.

"I see," Edward said blankly, "I…"

"Same question from this morning, do you ever stop talking?" asked Alice. Edward decided this was the hint that they needed to walk in silence for a bit. He was surprised therefore; at how short it was, because Alice opened the gate to a slightly improbably large house. "We're here," she said, and then after looking at Edward's face sighed heavily. "This is more sort of company headquarters then just a house," she explained, "my Dad's not that rich."

"Yes…" muttered Edward, who was wondering how many times he could fit his house inside the structure.

"Rich enough to annoy my step-dad though," she chuckled to herself. Edward spotted the chance to launch another series of questions.

"So your step dads easily angered then?" he queried.

"Nah, he's just funny," Alice chuckled. "We get on well enough; he treats me as if I was his daughter. But he can be insecure, especially when around Dad." She paused. "Of course it was awkward initially, but it got a lot better over time," – the words Edward really needed to here – "especially after the birth of my half sister."

Edward's stomach turned to lead immediately. He'd never considered the possibility of Blossom and Brick having another child. But then he relax – even if they conceived now, it would be five years before the child was born and by then it wouldn't be his problem or business.

So, having striped the information he needed to know, Edward could have just gone home, but that would have bee extremely rude and besides, he could do with the help with his maths. So now one more question occurred to him. "Err… what are you getting out of this?" he asked as they reached the front door.

Alice said nothing. She just knocked. There was a long paused and then without warning the door was thrown open. Behind it was a slightly less then average height man, with spiky black hair and a furious scowl on his face. Edward who have guessed that he was about thirty-forty years old, and he was sure he should recognise him. The man's expression relaxed ever so slightly when he saw Alice, but this didn't exactly make it look friendly.

"Your late," he snapped in a gruff voice.

Alice, seeming completely at easy with this, glanced at her watch. "So I am granddad," she said calmly. "I chose to walk to day."

"Humph." Alice Granddad snorted. "I hope your not going to be that lazy latter today."

"Sure," said Alice, "I need to do my Homework first."

The man grunted, and looked as though he was about to launch into a rant about homework when he finally spotted Edward standing nervously next to Alice. He scowled, seemingly the only expression he was capable of. "Who's this!" he demanded.

"A friend," said Alice coolly.

Her granddad paused. "You. Friend?" he said eventually.

"Yes Granddad!" Alice suddenly snapped, showing a degree of anger for the first time. Unphased, her granddad turned to look at Edward. Hard. He appeared to be trying to recognise Edward, just as the ruff was trying to recognise him. Eventually, seemingly satisfied he turned his back and walked away.

Alice grabbed Edward by the sleeve and dragged him away. "Work is this way," she said bluntly. Edward how ever was still in a degree of shock.

"That's your granddad!" he stuttered.

"And?" Alice responded, clearly nonplussed.

"Well, it's just my Granddad is, well, old."

"He would be, wouldn't he," Alice replied as cryptically as ever, leaving Edward even more confused.

Of course they were being watched, or more tracked. Him could not believe how easy this was. Who'd have known that his master would have been able to set this up so well? Maybe he should have known better, mused Him. After all, only an extremely exceptional person could force Him to work for them.

The bright red Demon hated the idea of having to work for someone, but truth be told, he hated the puffs more. Also he enjoyed having all his teeth, but Him wasn't willing to admit that it was mainly fear that caused his allegiance to someone else.

Still, it was a good plan he had to admit. "Oh Blossom," he chuckled to himself, "you're going to be in so much trouble when this pans out."

The hard bit had been done; the two targets were alone, together and talking. All that was needed now was a little bit of manipulation, and that was Him's speciality.

Edward and Alice had been working for a while, in a sort of awkward silence punctured by the occasional exchange of information. In fact the whole situation was awkward, as far as Edward was concerned. He still wasn't quite sure how he'd got here, so he briefly replayed the events in his mind. About 24 hours ago he'd grabbed her round the neck, and now, via a punch to the stomach, a maths lesson, a similar family situation and a bit of mind games by both parties and here they were. It didn't seem too plausible.

Maybe a few more factors needed to be considered. The one which sprung to mind was the suggestion from Alice's (rather strange) Granddad that Alice didn't seem to have many friends. It could just be that she preferred to entertain them at her mum's house, but maybe it was because of her abrasive personality. So perhaps she was lonely, but if so why him? The words of his friends drifted back to him and however much they had been mocking him, perhaps they had a point. Was it possible that she did have a crush on him?

Edward attempted to dismiss those thoughts as "irresponsible" and tried to return to his maths, so he reached across to turn the page of the text book, only to find Alice's hand already there and there was a brief brush.

The two on then looked at each other immediately, and normally, that would be that. Perhaps an embarrassed laugh and an apology, but nothing more. Well, nothing without the interceding of our demonic villain. The room slowly filled with the familiar red mist and Edward immediately found his senses bombarded by every single part of Alice's body, every part that he liked, and he could only assume the same thing was happening to her. The uncontrollable rise of emotions that he'd never felt before surged through his body, and he offered them no resistance. Without a conscious thought going through either heads the two of them embraced, as if they'd been doing it for years. Quietly, in the back ground, Him chuckled. It was far too easy.

* * *

MJ had finished her press ups, and decided to go out for a swing. So after changing into her spider-puff costume, she'd popped out the window. There were no worries; Mum wasn't home yet and was unlikely to be for a while, and the beautiful autumnal Sunset provided the perfect backing for a release of emotion. And MJ needed a release.

MJ found it extremely refreshing to be outside, throwing herself around spectacularly with the wind in her hair. Plus, because she was wearing her mask, she didn't need to be afraid of people judging her, so MJ was free to express herself, and to enjoy the occasional pigeon as a snack.

In fact she was lining up to grab one from behind half an hour latter when a siren scared it off. Slightly annoyed (but aware that she ort not to spoil her supper) MJ searched for the source of the noise. A group of Police cars and fire engines we're speeding off in a direction, wailing desperately. Deciding it was time to help, and therefore to establish her superhero credentials a bit further, MJ gave chase. It was difficult to keep up by swinging (MJ would dearly have loved to still have her puff powers so she could just fly after them,) but despite losing sight of them a couple of times, she managed to follow the sound to the scene of the disaster.

It wasn't too difficult to locate. Landing on top of a near by building, MJ took a moment to evaluate the scene. Before her was a carnival that was in town for the week, and a huge rollercoaster was the centre piece. And it was the rollercoaster that was the problem; one of the carts had become derailed, and it appeared that a near by fuel tanker was on fire. Depressingly, this seemed to be affecting the structure of the construction. As she considered this, there was a gentle thud beside her.

"Hi MJ," said SP, as always unreasonably cheerfully, especially considering the circumstances. "You here to help?"

"No, I thought I'd just watch," MJ replied sarcastically. She liked being sarcastic in front of SP because her clone just didn't understand it.

"Really, okay. I'll help." SP jumped up towards the structure, but MJ grabbed her leg and pulled her back.

"Not so fast," she said in a commanding tone that Blossom would have been proud of. "Shall we take a moment to evaluate the danger first? That's what really Superheroes do."

"Oh, okay."

"Right," MJ paused. "What I think happened was that the fuel truck there crashed into the control hut and the rollercoaster and started the fire, as well as the impact derailing the carts on the top. So there's people in danger from the fire down low and people in danger on the 'coaster up high." She paused from thought. "I'm stronger then you and can jump higher, so I'll go high and you go low." That was the sort of decisions good leaders made, she thought.

SP saluted quickly as a sign of acknowledgement and then hurtled herself straight towards the fire and almost into it. Fool, thought MJ as she jumped upwards towards the top. With an aggressive attitude like that, she was bound to get herself hurt. But that was none of her concern, she had people to save.

The initial jump got her half way up, and then with all the agility expected from a spider-puff, she jumped up the framework structure to the top and quickly evaluated the close up situation. There were about nine very scared people in the derailed cart, and one empty seat in it, with a broken safety bar. Okay, someone could have fallen out, but MJ decided to help those in slight first. Quickly, with out much talking, MJ help two of them out, wrapped them in webbing and lower them to the ground (one from each hand.) Once she'd done it for the first two, the rest weren't so nervous about her tactic, although most of them were still pretty dam scared. MJ decided just to accept that and ignore the rather colour full langue and the looks that suggested most of them would rather be rescued by an adult superhero. They'd be grateful once they were on the ground.

To her relief, she got them all down safely, and started to search for a potential tenth person from the broken seat. Initially there was no sign, and MJ wondered if they'd fallen all the way to their death, or, hopefully that the seat was empty. However, suddenly she heard a voice appealing desperately for help.

Looking in the general direction of the sound, MJ suddenly spotted her, a young girl hanging on to the rafters a few metres down for dear life. She jumped down towards her, landing as gently as she could on the girls hand hold. "Quick, give me your hand!" she began, stretching it out towards her, but then she stopped, because she realised who she was helping. It was Vicky.

MJ's regular tormenter looked up at the spider-puff, who was staring open mouthed at her, and to MJ's horror, a look of recognition spread over her face. "MJ you little bitch," she said, but it was hardly said in a nasty way. Her voice was filled with tears of relief. "I'd know those gold braces anywhere! Please help me."

Shit, thought MJ those stupid braces had given her away. By first lesson of tomorrow morning, everyone was going to know. She looked down at Vicky, who looked so pathetic, hanging on there, fearing for her life. She should help her, she knew that. But just the look on her face, the sound of her voice, filled her with hate. Slowly MJ drew her hand away, physically shaking as she did.

"Why!" she demanded. "Why should I help you!"

Vicky's eyes filled with fear, a sight that filled MJ with delight. "Be serious MJ" she pleaded, "I'm going to die! You… you wouldn't…"

Whipping the mask off her face, so that there could be no doubt, MJ smiled viciously down upon Vicky. This is what Brick had meant. Sure, MJ didn't want her dead. She wanted more then that. She wanted Vicky to suffer. "Why wouldn't I?" she asked, stamping her feet next to Vicky's hand, causing her to flinch. "Aw, what's wrong," she mocked. "You scared?"

Then, suddenly without warning, the entire structure lurched, as part of the structure on the other side buckled under the heat of the fire. MJ was completely knocked off balance, and when she had regained it, Vicky was gone. She flailed her head around desperately, trying to she where she'd gone. Then, fearfully, she looked down. "Oh my God…" she whispered, "What have I done?"

Elsewhere, Edward was sharing his sister's sentiments…

* * *

Okay, long chapter, but I hope you enjoy it. Various character should be returning to the story shortly, and the amount of time spent with the kids should be more balanced from now on with the time spent with the adults (well, maybe one more chapter.) If you have any advice/criticism, please feel free to say. Thanks. 


	17. Morning After Sickness

Okay, this weeks excuse is that I'm now on easter holiday. Sorry, not a very good one. Enjoy this anyhow.

**16. Morning After Sickness**

As she sat on a building a safe distance away, watching the fire brigade finish there work, MJ felt sick. There was no way around it: she'd cocked up. She'd let Vicky fall to her death because she'd been trying to make her suffer. The fact that she'd succeed did not make her feel any better. The guilt was eating her alive from the inside.

SP scrambled onto the roof beside her, panting heavily, but with a massive smile on her face. "That went well," she gurgled.

"Did it," MJ replied tonelessly.

"Yep!" SP replied. She was slightly singed, but not at all put off by it. "I managed to get the driver of the truck out and a few more people too. How did it go for you?"

MJ decided not to lie. "I missed one," she said. SP stopped.

"Are they…" she asked nervously. MJ nodded. SP paused and stared into middle distance for a while. MJ was staring at her feet, but after a moment, glanced up at her sort of twin sister. She now had her eyes closed now, and was whispering under her breath, murmuring something that to MJ was inaudible. Suddenly she finished, and the chirpy persona immediately returned. She bounced herself down onto the fall next to MJ, putting an arm around her. "Cheer up, it wasn't your fault," she said. "Sometimes we're just not quite quick enough. It's okay to be sad, but think of all the people you did save today, and how everyone who knows them will be grateful. Like my mum always says…"

"Oh shut up!" MJ pushed SP's arm off her.

"No, that's not what she says," SP replied, thinking hard. "Well, maybe sometimes."

MJ had stood up. "Leave me alone," she commanded, and with that she jumped off the building, with the intention of swinging home.

Each swing she took was long and lazy. There was no spark in her soul anymore, only the heavy weight of guilt hanging heavily on her mind. The world around her, although still bustling with the sounds of a busy city, seemed silent and empty, as if she only had her sin for company. If she was very quiet, she could still hear the scream echoing in her head.

It was too much. MJ screamed her self, desperate to override the sound of her own brain. She'd already had enough of this pain, there had to be a way of dealing with it. And there was one easily available. She focused her mind on school. On all those bitter, horrible experiences that had left her humiliated and hurting. For the moment ignoring Vicky's suffering, she focused on her own, building up the sadness and self pity in her heart until it overrode all her other emotions. Then, with one swift swell, she converted it all to anger.

It was simple. The bitch had got what she deserved. In fact, MJ tried to convince herself, it hadn't been an accident. She'd let her die intentionally, and she had no regrets. Landing on the side of the nearest building, MJ punch the wall hard, just to get out some of the built up aggression. It felt good. Everything felt good. She'd never have to suffer at Vicky's hands or tongue again, (and the sizable crack in the brick work was satisfying too.) She, MJ, had administrated her own justice and she had been right to do so. The guilt was suppressed.

MJ stood up (parallel to the ground of course, since she was still on the side of a building,) feeling please with herself. Just then, she heard a sound behind her, and she swung round.

"I though I told you to leave me alone!" she snapped. SP, suddenly looked a lot more like Sandra-Patricia, cowed slightly further back.

"I just want to see if you're okay," she whimpered quietly. Normally, when she was that pathetic, even MJ (who had little sympathy for SP anyway) would be softened. For now though, MJ's surging anger was in control, so it was going to take a lot more then that.

"I'm fine! Now fuck off!" She bellowed. SP nodded sadly, and swung off towards home. MJ spat. She'd get over it. Annoyingly, she always did. For now though, it was time to head home for supper.

* * *

Edward eventually limped home shortly before MJ arrived. He was hoping to just slip in creep upstairs to create the impression that he'd been home all along. Then he could maybe have a shower. Edward wasn't really use to sneaking in late (because he was an extremely unadventurous person normally) and today wouldn't be good practice for it because Brick appeared to be waiting for him.

"Hi Edward," he said in an overly cheerful voice that nearly caused his son to jump through the ceiling, "how was your day?"

Shit, he knows, thought Edward. Why else would he ask me that question? Still, he managed to steady himself. "Fine, fine," he managed in a high pitched voice, before pausing for an unnecessarily long time. "Err… how was yours?"

"Long and pointless," replied Brick immediately, having spend the entire day in a queue on the phone which had lead no where. "Anyway, I was think that it was probably time we had a… um… honest talk about things."

If the two of them hadn't been too busy worrying about their own problems, they might have noticed the other one's.

"Where's mum?" Edward asked instantly.

"Ah, she didn't put me up to this," Brick replied quickly (which was true because it had been Boomer) "I just thought that, a… umm… frank discussion of our… circumstances would be very productive, yes?"

"Couldn't it wait?" asked Edward desperately, who was in no mood to be frank about anything. Brick grabbed him by the arm and dragged Edward into the lounge, signalling in no uncertain terms that it couldn't. "Alright, alright, make it quick."

Brick was about to start when he paused. He'd been planning to lead to the fact that the kid hated him, but they had just managed ten seconds of conversation without shouting at each other. Maybe he didn't hate him as much as he thought? He decided to lead with it anyway. "So, Edward, I know how much you hate me because of what I've done to your family and I'm not going to try and change that. You have a right to be aggrieved about the disgusting things I did when I was only slightly older then you were…"

"Actually I've been thinking," Edward interrupted quickly in an attempt to make his humble pie slightly less bitter, "and maybe it wasn't so wrong for you and mum to… do what you did," he finished lamely, desperately trying not to form a mental picture in his head.

"No, I was young and stupid," Brick overruled him, "and it was defiantly a bad thing that my actions have wrecked such havoc on your life."

"Nononono," Edward gibbered quickly. "That's only one point of view, because…err… from another angle if you hadn't done it with… mum… then I'd never have existed, so that would have disrupted my life a lot more."

Brick didn't know Edward well, but he was now suspicious. "Yes, but…" he decided to play the big gun, "do you want to end up as the adult in this situation, causing pain on a Edward jr of your own?"

"Not really."

"Then please take my hypocritical advice and always use a condom son. Or better yet, don't have sex at all," he said cheerfully, "I mean it's not that fun really. They just like to pretend that it is in the media. Highly overrated activity sex."

If Edward had still been in the room mentally, he would have realised that Brick was surely lying through his teeth. However, his mind had left the planet at the word condom. He didn't have many memories of the afternoon's "experience" (he wondered if that was natural) but none of those small snippets of hazy images involved a condom. Shit. He jumped back into the real world.

"Yes, yes of course" he replied hurriedly, and then dived out the room. Brick watched him go.

"Humm, job well done," he said to himself. "Two kids fixed in one day, I bet Eddy never managed that!"

* * *

Blossom was still at work. Sure, there was a lot of responsibly involved in running an organisation like the SSR, but she was beginning to become fed up with having to stay late because Sonic was having such long meetings about something she wasn't allowed to know about!

The meetings were also becoming increasingly heated. Blossom often heard the beginning of shouts that were quickly stifled by – as far as she could tell – the desire to stop her from over hearing. She could have sneaked up and listen in through the door, but Blossom recoiled at that thought. I was dishonest and unprofessional. Besides, Sonic had posted someone on the door.

Eventually, this evenings meeting finished, and Piccolo, Batman, and Cyclops all left, the three of them still steaming quietly with anger. After a brief, maybe guilt, glance at Blossom, they all set off purposefully in different directions, and Blossom strode into Sonic's office.

"Enjoyable meeting?" she asked politely. Sonic looked up.

"You still here?" he asked, completely avoiding the question. He wagged a finger at her. "That's good commitment, well done."

"Oh spare the soft soap Sonic, what's going on that I don't know about!"

"Many things," Sonic replied instantly. "For example, I'm taking my daughter out for dinner tonight, you didn't know that, did you."

"Come off it Sonic, you know what I'm talking about."

"No Blossom, I don't." Sonic replied. There was a long pause. "However, hypothetically speaking of course, wouldn't you think that if there was a serious security incident that I hadn't told you about, then there would be a good reason for it?"

Blossom paused. "Like there is a good reason for you to ask the Professor to build a machine that uses sayains as a power source to create some sort of force field." She handed the blue prints to him. "You need to sign this."

"Of course," Sonic replied as he did. "Want a reason for it? Well, we wouldn't want him getting lazy now would we?"

Blossom sighed and turned to leave when Sonic spoke up again. "By the way, I just heard from the police commissioner, they're letting Eddy out of jail early on Saturday. So have a good weekend!"

* * *

The following morning (Friday) was a morning of contrasts for the two kids. MJ's school was in a degree of chaos. The events of the previous day had put the establishment straight into "crisis management" mode. Most of Vicky's friends were allowed to go home to recover from the shock, while the rest of them had attended a brief special assembly where the headmistress informed them of the tragedy. The mood throughout the school was melancholy as a tower of flowers and sympathy notes built up at the front gate under the watch of the gathered media.

As for MJ, she loved it. She had known she was going to, so much so that when Blossom had asked if she wanted to go in (having found out about the tragedy through Buttercup and the breakfast news) MJ had insisted.

It was a wonderful day, from her point of view. The Sun was shining in the last defiant image of summer and the half empty class room allowed her to work without fear. She contributed regularly in class for the first time in years and by lunch time she was in such a good mood she sat with SP at lunch (much to Sandra-Patricia's obvious delight.)

The only dampener was the slight pang of guilt she felt every time she saw a heap of flowers, but she quickly suppressed that with a surge of delighted anger. Life was good.

Edward on the other hand, was on the edge. He felt that everyone was looking at him and judging his actions, or at the very least reading his mind. It was horrible. The fact was nothing had changed, but when you're being totally paranoid it's not easy to see that.

Still, he'd decided that he better talk to Alice about it, just to set the record straight. The problem was that she was obviously trying to avoid him. To be fair this wasn't a surprise, but it worried him.

Eventually however, he caught her in a corridor. "Alice, wait!" he managed, his heart thumping at a million miles per hour. He was very nervous about this; she'd punched him before, what was to stop her from doing it again? Then people would start talking, if they weren't already.

Alice didn't punch him, but she did stop and turn round. Edward looked at her, embarrassedly, she was still (in his eyes) fairly stunning, but that wasn't what he was here for. Besides, she was looking at a spot on the floor to the left of his feet.

"What," she muttered.

"Listen, I want to apologise for yesterday. It's not like me at all to do that sort of thing and… well I'm sorry."

Alice looked at him for a moment, and immediately looked away again. "Okay," she said. "I know you're not like that. I'm not like that. But there are a lot of things about me that…" she stopped. "Lets just say that since we bring out the worst in each other we should try and avoid each other from now on."

Entering this conversation, Edward hadn't known what sort of a result he'd wanted. So as his heart crashed through his boots, he was certain that hadn't been it. But who was he to fight it. "Sure, I agree entirely," he said tonelessly.

"Good, thanks," Alice replied in an equally toneless voice and she walked away, leaving Edward feeling empty inside.


	18. Back in the Frame

**17. Back in the Frame**

It's time for another one of my Pearls of Wisdom (and I use wisdom in the weakest possible sense) about the male homo sapien. It is quite a simple one this time but possibly the most important one: Men are egos covered in skin. Understand that, and you get a nice easy explanation as to why we never ask for directions, never read instruction manuals and never apologies, unless it allows us to gain the moral high ground.

As the a result, the best way to make a man happier to tell him he's good at something, and the best way to crush him is to beat him at a game you've never played before that he thinks he's good at (pool is brilliant for this.) Rejecting him also works too though. Very well. A man with a damaged ego will generally react in one of two ways. Either they will get angry (and possibly violent) or depressed (and apathetic.) Alternatively they could flip between the two, or in a couple of very rare cases, they might actually do something about it.

Edward was not one of those special cases. His ego had taken a bit of a hammering recently, by the (obvious, but no less surprising when it happens) fact that he had little or no influence on the Brick/Blossom affair, his failure to live up to his own moral standards due to his little escapade on Thursday afternoon and final by having been cast off by Alice the following day without seemingly a backward glance. As result, he started Saturday morning as a very depressed person.

Brick in contrast, was on the crest of a wave. In the last few days he'd managed to have a chat with Edward that hadn't been filled with any hidden malice (even if it had been on a tricky subject,) he'd taught MJ a valuable lesson and got closer to her (in his mind), Blossom seemed to be delighted with his return, and just this moment he'd managed to solve his little governmental issue.

So as Edward sulked down the stairs, Brick went bouncing up past him chanting "I've got a social security number," with surprising tunefulness. In fact he bounced all the way into the master bedroom where Blossom seemed to be packing something. "They said they'd sort it as soon as possible and notify me through the post," he elaborated to her, "so I should officially be alive again by Tuesday!"

"That's great," Blossom replied with enthusiasm, "Then you can start putting your life back together again."

"Oh I'm not too concerned about that," Brick smiled, "the most important piece is already in place." He took her hand gently, and they allowed themselves and brief tight hug, before Brick noticed something. "Err… what's with all the boxes?"

"Oh that," Blossom flustered. "Well, err… you see Eddy's getting out of jail today, so I thought I better pack up his stuff…" she tailed off as she spoke. It was clear, even to someone as self assured as Brick, that she wasn't completely comfortable with doing this.

"Do you need a hand?" he offered.

"No… Actually, yes," she swung round to him with a cheerful smile on her face, "why don't you take the kids out somewhere. This would be a lot easier if they weren't around. They… I mean I might find it a bit awkward otherwise."

Brick blinked. "I don't know if that's possible. I mean, would Edward want to spend time with me?"

"He will if you let me have a word with him first," Blossom said confidently. "Why don't you go talk to MJ and decide something to do, and I'll talk to him. Hell, you could even invite Buttercup, Butch, SP and Boomer along and make a day of it."

"What about Bubbles?"

"She's campaigning downstate today, and besides, she and Buttercup are still not talking."

Brick thought for a moment. "Alright," he said.

* * *

Edward was downstairs watching television with a cup of tea and a grim expression on his face. To be fair though, he wasn't actually watching the television, he was more sort of using it as background noise while he brooded on the wrongs of the world and himself.

I mean, he thought, weren't you supposed to remember sex? It seemed pretty dammed important too the relation ship between Brick and his mum (thinking about it made him shudder) so surely they remembered what had happened? Maybe Alice didn't remember it either, so that was why she'd cast him off, letting him down gently of course.

In fact, he was so deep in thought, that he didn't notice Blossom until she sat down beside him. "Oh, hi mum," he mumbled that way that only teenagers seem to be able to. "You alright?"

"Fine," Blossom replied cheerfully, "listen, since it's the weekend and the weathers so good today, I was wondering if you wanted to try going out with MJ and Brick for the day. You know, do some bonding."

Edward's eyes switched back the television. "Can't, I have to clean my room and do all those other chores you've set me that I'm trying to get out of." Blossom sighed.

"Come on Edward," she said in a parental tone, "it's a beautiful day out side and you can't sit here sulking. Besides, you promised me you'd try and form some sort of working relationship with your biological father. He'd really like to spend the time with you," she finished with a lie.

"Ha," Edward saw straight through it. "I'm surprised actually; Brick doesn't strike me as the sort of person that takes orders easily."

"He doesn't" replied Blossom indignantly. "It was more of a gentle suggestion if you must know."

"I knew it," Edward sighed. "Come off it Mum, I don't like him and he doesn't like me, can't we just leave it at that. Besides, I'm too depressed today."

"Really, why?" Blossom asked, leaping on this display of a weak spot from her son. There was a long pause.

"Mum, do you ever feel like you're really useless at everything?" Edward asked eventually. Blossom said nothing. Instead, she walked out of the room and returned shortly afterwards with a package. She dumped it on his lap. Only then did she reply.

"Yes," she said. "Well go on, open it." Edward did, finding inside a Red Ball official T-Shirt and cap, and a list of instruction basically stating that it was in his contract to wear them as much as humanly possible. "Do you think a major company like Red Ball would have hired you if they thought you where useless?" she asked.

"They took Scot Speed," Edward muttered darkly, as he read through the instructions. "I'm going to look a right prick going in to school dressed like this everyday." (Not a problem in England, since we have school uniforms. Go us.)

"Well Maybe Brick could help you with that," Blossom prodded. "You know, he was always very good with girls and with being cool."

Edward looked at her. "This is the man who wears a baseball cap back-to-front," he reminded her.

"Oh it was the mid 90's it was very cool back then," Blossom sniffed. She put a hand gently on his head. "Listen, I know how hard Eddy worked for you to get that contract, but spending time with Brick is not an act of betrayal to him. It's just you trying to get along. If anyone has any bones about it then they should blame me. But if you try, I'm sure you'll find Brick perfectly amiable. And he could learn some stuff from you too. Please, for me?"

Edward said nothing for a moment. "He means a lot to you, doesn't he?"

Blossom nodded. "After he died, I pretty much felt completely useless."

"Really? Who helped you out from that feeling?" Edward asked quietly. Blossom gave no reply, but just looked at her feet, an expression of guilt written across her face. She was rescued from this dilemma by Brick arrival.

"Morning Edward!" He announced chirpily, with his trade mark cap back on for the first time in a few days, "me and MJ where going to the park to have a quick round of baseball with your cousins, and I was wondering if you want to join us?" There was a slight element of hope in his voice.

Edward relented, and stuffed the Red Ball cap on his head (the correct way round of course). "For sure," he said as cheerfully as he could.

* * *

Blossom did not enjoy her day alone. Rifling through Eddy's stuff brought back a lot of memories, some of which she'd rather forget. She and the kids had meant everything to him, (passed his flawed ambitions for wealth of course) and he'd also been the one who'd help her through so many pits of misery. It was hard to think that they'd probably never speak amicably again.

Of course logically, if Brick hadn't died, then Eddy would never have got his chance. Logically, he knew the score, and it made sense for her to return to Brick when he came back. But emotions work differently to logic, and Blossom couldn't help feeling guilty. She was, after all, breaking a promise to him, and that was something Blossom couldn't take lightly. If she'd reunited with Brick after death it would be different, but life (and death) hadn't worked out quite like she'd thought they would.

The door bell rang. Blossom sighed heavily, and took a brief moment of silence to centre herself. It wasn't as if she was ungrateful for Brick returning – she was delighted about that. It was just she didn't want to have to do this bit…

The door bell rang again, multiple times in fact. Typical Eddy, Blossom thought, he'd never been greatly good with anger. He tended to suppress it and then allow it to manifest itself in unpredictable ways. Hence when she did open the door, she half expected some poorly conceived, spring operated trap to just fail to cover her with water. But instead (and slightly disappointingly,) she was just presented with her husband standing there.

"Hi," he said in a tense tone. He couldn't bring him self to say her name. It was worse for Blossom though; she found she couldn't even make eye contact. Looking at him made her feel sick with guilt, so she found a patch of grass about ten feet behind him and one foot to the right which she could stare at.

"Hi Eddy," she managed. "How are you?"

It was a stupid, non-committal question, typical of such an awkward conversation. Eddy quickly gave the equally stupid, non-committal and incorrect answer. "Fine, fine. You?"

"Me? Alright."

"Okay, are the kids about?" Asked Eddy, peering pass Blossom to see if they where lurking in the background.

"No, there out at the moment, I'm afraid." Blossom made a point of not saying with whom.

"Oh," Eddy replied, despondently. Up until this point the conversation had been moving along at a steady pass, despite its lack of Shakespearian qualities. At this point it did grind to a crashing halt for a few seconds that felt like hours.

Eventually, Blossom restarted it. "Have you got somewhere to stay?" she asked.

"Yeah, Double D's putting me up," Eddy mumbled. "He said I didn't have to pay rent if I forgave him for calling the police while I was in England, so obviously I did."

There was a bought of nervous laughter which broken the tension a bit. "Okay," Blossom said eventually, "I've put you're… err things in boxes if you want to collect them."

Eddy visibly resisted the temptation for some cheep shots. "Yes, can I go in and get them?" he asked. Blossom nodded, and let him enter the house.

His house, Blossom thought, he'd brought it after all. Nine years ago, shortly after the birth of her second (and as it turned out Eddy's only) child. Nine, mostly happy years. Blossom was very good at guilt tripping her self; it was a survival mechanism. Watching Eddy carry the boxes past her out of the house was a very easy way of doing it, and put her in mind of him carrying them in, while she'd looked after young Edward and the baby MJ. Was it really that long ago? It seemed almost like… nine years ago. To be fair, Blossom had a fairly intense life.

She was broken from her reflection by the distant sound of voices, just as Eddy was loading the last box. The sound of three, surprisingly happy people walking home.

"It was a clean catch!" MJ was protesting.

"No it wasn't," Brick replied indigantly, "SP's catch was clean because she actually jumped for it. You just webbed it in to your hand, that doesn't count!"

"Actually, I thought it was a good tactic," Edward injected, "It allowed her to play at back stop and first base at the same time."

"You're just annoyed because you couldn't hit any of Uncle Boomer's pitches," MJ goaded. Brick was about to respond to this accusation, but before he could, the two children spotted it.

There were many ways this could have played out, Blossom thought. It really depended on how angry Eddy was about Brick. The answer to that question was that he wasn't angry enough to remain mad when MJ sprinted over to him wailing "Daddy!" Blossom dared to look briefly as Eddy swept her up into a tearful hug. Edward meanwhile had the courtesy to give Brick and Blossom a quick (friendly) glance – he seemed in a much better mood – before sauntering over too, in that way teenagers do when they're happy to see their parents but don't want them to know that they are.

While the three of them got reacquainted, Blossom turned to Brick, who for his part seemed slightly put out by all this. Blossom wondered over to him. "He is there father," she said quietly, reading his mind.

Brick nodded tightly. "Its probably best if I go inside," he replied, and after giving Blossom a quick kiss (making sure they were in Eddy's eye line first,) he did.

"Is it alright if I take the kids out for a bit," Eddy called over suddenly. He seemed to have relaxed a lot now they where around.

Blossom hadn't. "Sure," she said, still failing to make eye contact, much to her own shame. "Don't be too late though please."

Eddy nodded, and they bundled into the car, while Blossom went back inside. She tried not to think about the seeming emptiness and focus on the potential future. "There'll be a lot more space for your things now Brick," she declared. Brick grunted.

"I don't really have much stuff," he replied sharply. Blossom sighed and sat down beside him.

"Have a good day with the kids?" she asked teasingly.

"It was alright," Brick said quickly, with a tone of bitterness.

"You're not jealous of Eddy are you?"

Brick jumped. "Of course not!" he stormed, before catching a look at Blossom's face. It was the 'I know your ego just got dented' look. "Maybe I'm a bit jealous of Butch… possibly, but who cares about Eddy. I still have something he doesn't." He gently took Blossom's arm. "Something far better…"

* * *

After driving around for half an hour looking for somewhere to eat, Eddy gave up and took the children to MacDonald's instead. This was always going to be a difficult time for him anyway. With this being the first opportunity he had had to see Edward and MJ since Brick's return, Eddy now had to tread the fine line between explain his side of the story and vying for there affection with Blossom. Of course the idea solution would be for the children to understand that both parents love them equally, but a.) that isn't always true and b.) its a lot easier said then done.

However, Eddy was still reeling from the bashing his ego had taken from Blossom's double quick defection, so he really didn't feel like talking about it (besides ranting at the kids about the situation would make him look bitter. Much better to rant at Double D and Ed instead.) So, doing what nearly any man would do under the circumstances, they talked about something else. Which means sport.

"… I mean where does he think he came from!" Eddy ranted through his burger. "He's a complete lunatic!"

"He swapped over from formula one," Edward replied. "I think he was too much of a nutter for them, so they off loaded him to NASCAR."

"Who are we talking about?" asked MJ, who'd learned to take a passing interest in this sort of think for survival purposes.

"Juan-Pablo Montoya," Edward explained, "he drives the black and red 42 car."

"Oh I like that one," MJ giggled happily, "he drives really badly."

"Not badly, more sort of erratically. He could do with a trip to a finishing School."

"Ah," Eddy gulped down his drink, "I meant to ask, how has school been this week?"

"Fine," both children replied in chorus, suddenly looking neavous.

"Its just I heard in the news that one of your class mates had died in some sort of accident."

"Oh that!" MJ relaxed visibly. "I didn't like her, so that's cool."

Eddy looked concerned. "Maybe you didn't like her, but you shouldn't be happy that they died MJ."

The spider-puff suddenly looked very concerned. "Really, why?"

"They would have had a family and friends too," Eddy said, "how do you think her parents feel?"

MJ hadn't really got around to considering the affect on other people had actions had had. Sure, she'd seen the horrified looks on some of Vicky's friends, but she'd hated them too so that had made her feel good. But other people too? The armour she'd built up to protect herself from her guilt was beginning to crack.

Before she could worry anymore about that, they were interrupted by a new arrival. "Boy I hope everyone thinks nice things like that when I die," said Sonic the Hedgehog. "Hum, he was a bit of a git but hey he's dead so we'll be nice." This was followed by a brief period of laughing at his own wit.

"Err… what are you doing here?" asked Edward, "don't you have to eat healthy food?"

"I'm on a break," Sonic snapped. "Mind if I sit here?" he plonked himself down in a chair, but his drink fell off his tray in the process and landed on MJ's lap. "Oh dear, clumsy me," Sonic said with mock horror, "I guess you better go clear that up, why don't you go and help her Edward."

"I don't think…"

"I said…" Sonic began, causing Edward to grudgingly take the hint and to depart with MJ, leaving just him with just Eddy. The liberator of Mobius made the deliberately move of very slowly eating a chip before turning to Eddy. "So, how was jail?"

Unlike his wife, Eddy did not enjoy playing games with Sonic. "What do you want!" he snapped.

Sonic put an expression of mock shock on his face. "Now, now," he said smoothly, "is that anyway to talk to an ally."

"Didn't you get me put in jail," Eddy replied, "or is my memory getting worse."

Sonic nodded. "But that was a good thing, wouldn't you think? It gave the kids time to settle in to their new situation, and prevented you from making an arse of your self."

"It prevented me from fighting for my wife!" Eddy stormed

"Precisely," Sonic replied instantly. "You couldn't have won over a short term contest. Better to bide your time until he screws up."

"You mean…" Eddy paused. "Why are you interested anyway?"

"Where Chaos energy is involved I'm always interested," Sonic said. "It's safe enough when it's stable you mental instability can lead to physical instability which could lead to disaster. Both in Blossom and the children."

"But they don't have there powers at the moment," Eddy protested. "I hate Brick too you know, but he can't be that bad."

"Oh really?" Sonic sipped Edward's abandoned coke. "Think about it. You remember the chain of events that lead to Blossom killing Superman?"

"How could I forget."

"Then you'll remember that there was a moment when Brick could have ran for it if he wanted to. He had the chance. But instead he chose to try and kill Superman, for the sake of his own ego. Chaos energy and ego's don't mix, and trust me, as the owner of the worlds largest ego I know."

Eddy considered things. "So you think Brick is dangerous?"

Sonic nodded. "From my point of view you are a far safer option. Another example; when you were in Mexico, and Blossom was turned evil, you managed to convince her to use her evil side to save the world. But if Brick had been there instead, he would have been corrupted – not that he needs it – too, and I would have had to do it. It's a valid point."

Eddy snorted. "I can understand your point," he muttered, "but personally I think that Blossom should be allowed to select a partner based on her happiness rather then world safety."

"Yeah, well Blossom's happiness isn't exactly high on my priorities list," Sonic replied. "But if that's how you feel, at least let me help with the kids."

"Help?"

"Brick's not what I'd call an ideal role model," Sonic explained. "Edward's alright but I worry about MJ. Its really quite important that he doesn't screw her up." He smiled. "But you shouldn't give up yet," he continued, "there are plenty of people like me who think that you were very good to Blossom and those kids; not perfect obviously but very good. I think you'd be surprised by who some of them are too."

Eddy sighed. "What can they do?" To which Sonic just laughed.

* * *

Blossom and Brick where relaxing by the time the doorbell rang. Blossom sighed. "Brick can you get that," she said. "I really don't want to see Eddy again today; it was hard enough the first time."

"Give you trouble did he?" Brick asked; he was feeling up for a confrontation now.

"No he didn't," Blossom replied, but she said nothing else. Brick nodded – Blossom's conscious was perfectly capable of causing her trouble on its own.

He opened the front door as quickly as he could to find the children finishing there goodbyes before scuttling past him and inside fairly quickly. Eddy watched them go sadly. Brick was fairly keen that he shouldn't be there for long.

"Did you feed them?" he asked abruptly. Eddy jumped.

"Oh, yes, no need to worry," he said, almost friendlily. Brick didn't let his guard drop.

"Okay, bye!" he said the door was half closed when Eddy spoke again.

"MJ seems to have taken a shine to you," he said provocatively. Brick stopped, and then stepped out side, gently closing the door behind him.

"Maybe she has," he replied in a quiet, threatening tone. "But what's it to you?"

"A lot," Eddy said firmly. "As much as I hate it, Blossom works long hours so a lot of her life is in your hands. You mess it up and I swear I'll make you pay!"

Brick stood there for a moment. Then he laughed. "I'm sorry," he giggled, breaking the tension completely, "I really am sorry, but are you threatening me? Because, I mean normally, if people threaten me I beat the crap out of them, but you? I mean what's the point! Other then firing my brother, which you can only do once, what can you do to me, when I can just pummel you with one eye close and a hand tied behind my back?"

Eddy smiled. "I have friends," he said.

"Who," scoffed Brick.

"Me," said Sonic from behind Brick. In fact, he spoke right into Brick's ear, causing him to jump a considerable distance into the air.

"How did you get there!" he spluttered. Sonic smiled.

"Now, Brick," he said, ignoring the question, "it is time we had a serious talk. I'll be brief; if I had it my way, you'd still be dead and of no bother to anyone. Maybe if I was feeling kind, you'd be back in Deaths' domain or wherever, waiting quietly for Blossom like a good boy."

"How do you know about that!" demanded Brick.

"…but now your back on earth, I'm going to have to tolerate your presence and your affect on one of my most loyal and affective members of staff, so let me put it this way; you will play by my rules."

"Hey!" Brick protested, "there's only one person's rules I work by, and that's mine! No one but mine."

"Okay, if that's how you feel, I won't worry about reminding the police of your criminal record," Sonic replied calmly. Brick froze.

"You wouldn't," he whispered as Eddy laughed loudly in the background. "I… I mean you haven't for Butch or Boomer."

"But I trust them," Sonic smiled. "Dare I say I like them? They're dependable, loyal. Occasionally they break the law or go off the rails, but never in a destructive way. They never create extra work for me. And as long as you do the same, all will be well with us." He walked back round Brick to where Eddy was standing. "So here's how it goes. You will make sure that MJ has a friendly, stable setting for her to grow up in. That means that you will not argue with Edward, forcing to leave home early, you will he friendly and polite to Eddy when ever you are in front of her, you will do things when Blossom tells you to, and you will not make promises to the kid only to break them latter. In short you will not let her down! That way she'll grow up to be a balanced, stable and impressionable hero and not a too bit thug."

Brick was almost spitting with rage. "Who the hell do you take me for!" he growled.

"Someone who wants to avoid ten consecutive life sentences for petty crimes and one murder," Eddy said, cutting Brick up short. But as Blossom's (still current) husband walked back to his car, Sonic lingered a moment longer, and there was a glint in his eye.

"Just remember, I know what's under your bed," he said, and then he shot off.

Brick knew what was under his bed too. A contract…

* * *

Later, with the world shrouded in darkness, Sonic was out again. Well to be precise, he was quietly braking in to someone's house – a trick he'd learned from his revolutionary days. There wasn't a problem though, it was an SSR member's so Sonic considered himself allowed. He wasn't here to steal anything anyway, just to rearrange the medical cabinet in the bathroom and then to add something to it. That done he slipped off, giggling. The shit was really going to hit the fan over this one. He was going to enjoy it.

* * *

Sunday was uneventful, because the author had run out of events. Not convinced? Okay, they all had very long lie-ins before spending the day watching the Bahrain Grand Prix, an FA cup semi-final and the Champ Car World Series. Happy?

Monday dawned damp and miserable. Blossom wasn't in a fantastic mood anyway, once she'd found out from Brick about Sonic's intervention. She was determined to have a word with him about it, but, sure enough, when she arrived, Sonic was in one of his private meetings, and had posted Crash on the door to make sure Blossom couldn't interrupt.

She was about to return to her office to wait for him to finish, when Blossom noticed that Raven was also waiting for Sonic. Blossom had a lot of time for this former Titan. She was a good thinker that tended to fight with her head rather then her heart, a quality that Blossom admired. Also, despite being a D.C character, she'd never held Blossom's killing of Superman against her.

However, Raven's demonic powers had always been a worry for the SSR, and she was one of the heroes that Sonic tended to be a little more understanding towards. So to see her waiting for Sonic looking paler then normal was something worth Blossom concerning herself with.

"You okay?" Blossom asked. Raven, how'd been in a world of her own, looked up.

"Not really," she said in her toneless way. "Little problem at home I need to talk to someone here about."

Blossom was keen to get one in over Sonic. "I'm afraid Sonic could be hours in there, but if you can talk to me if you would like."

Raven thought for a moment, there was an element of panic in her eyes that Blossom found concerning. "Alright," she said, and the two of them proceeded into Blossom's office, where the pink puff closed the door, and invited her to sit down.

"Okay," said Blossom kindly once she'd sat herself, "when you're ready. Take as long as you need.

Raven nodded. "You know my oldest daughter?" she began. Blossom thought for a moment.

"Yes," she confirmed, slightly worriedly. "That's the… umm… one…"

"Illegitimate one, yes." Raven rarely skirted round these issues, much to Blossom's relief. "This morning she woke me to say that she was pregnant."

Blossom jumped. "Ah," she said. "Is it …err… expected?"

Raven shook her head. "She's not that sort of type, I didn't even know she had a boyfriend, or was even ready for one. But she is of that age… Apparently it happened at her fathers."

"I see," said Blossom again, instantly feeling sorry for the girl's father.

"She says she knows who the father is and that he is a reasonable type," Raven continued, "but she won't tell me who until she's told him, and if he turns out to be one of these bastards I worry for she state of mind, not to mention that me and BB aren't exactly fantastically off for money at the moment, and then there's her future, I mean how is it going to affect her schooling and…"

A mug exploded on Blossom's desk in a flash of black energy, and Raven stopped, this sign of extreme stress obviously embarrassing her somewhat. Blossom felt that it was time for her to speak.

"It's okay Raven," she said gently. "The girl will always have a future here if she wants it, and if she doesn't the SSR has plenty of contacts in industry and education to help you and her through. And if money is a problem just remember we can give you a hand, Sonic is surprisingly generous in these situations.

"He is?" asked Raven suspiciously. Blossom laughed.

"Sure!" she replied, getting into the flow of things. "We look after our own here in the SSR; somebody has to! We're not so much just a company, were a family."

As if on cue, the words "I'll kill you!" came drifting into the office, the sign of another impending fight that was about to break out between the heroes.

"A big happy family," Blossom continued determinedly, as she set off to try and put a stop to the violence outside. "Trust me Raven, it'll all be okay. No need to worry about some bastard's punk kid. I think he's the one that needs to worry."

* * *

Edward was not enjoying his morning break. In fact he was trying to find somewhere to hide so that no one else could ask him why he was wearing a Red Ball T-shirt. As he hurried a long a corridor, he was suddenly tapped on the shoulder. Whirling round to give who ever had done it a piece of his mind, he was surprised to find himself face to face with Alice. A very worried Alice.

"Err… hello, what's wrong with you?" he asked. The pale skinned, lavender haired girl looked around nervously.

"Ummm… I've got some important news," she stuttered.

* * *

As usual, bear in mind I can explain everything, so feel free to ask questions. Thanks. 


	19. Blossom on the Other Side

Okay, another delay, but here in compensation is my longest ever chapter. There are a lot of important plot points in here so I hope it doesn't get to confusing. If it does, tell me and I'll try to explain.

On another note, in one scene towards the end it might appear that I take a pot shot at a very popular author's stories. I would like to therefore point out before you get there that I am a great fan of her work too, and the comment in the scene is mealy an observation and manly done for humour's sake.

Anyway, the main point of this chapter is that in many stories on this section of the site, Blossom ends up getting pregnant as a teenager, and enters those murky, depressing waters of being an abandoned victim. So lets see how (I think) she'd handle the same situation from the other side of the glass.

Once again, just to confirm, I mean **no disrespect to any writer or other person in this chapter.** I the end this is just a story.

Enjoy!

* * *

**18. Blossom on the other side**

"Pregnant?" Edward stuttered as quietly as he dared. "As in with child?" Alice, who was two scared to be annoyed by this, nodded briefly. Her skin seemed paler then normal. For once, she also said nothing. Edward thought for a moment. It was too much to take in. Pregnant? That meant that he'd ruined her life. It also meant that he was going to be a father, but he didn't even begin to think about that. It was too much.

"I…" he paused, and took a deep breath. Sure this was scary for him, but it had to be worse of the poor child, especially with her seemingly complicated family life. He wondered whether her parents were any more caring then Alice's supposed Grandfather had seemed to be. Would she end up out in the cold with the baby? Or maybe, considering her Grandfather's appearance, Alice might be the property of teenage high jinks herself.

Then again, wasn't he? Edward forgot that thought and turned back to the matter in hand, with a few deep breaths. "Okay," he said nervously, "have you… err, I mean… do your parents know?" he asked timidly, terrified as he was of jumping on her toes over this.

Alice nodded. "My Mum knows which means my step Dad will soon. But they don't know it's you yet."

Another thought pressed its way into Edward's mind, the thought of the press. What if they were to find out? "Son of Blossom Knocks up Girl" could be on all the tabloids soon, as unwanted pressure for everyone. What if Alice's family were the sort of sue-for-anything people that would leap at something like this? What then would happen to his Mum, or Bubble's campaign, or his relations with his Red Ball paymasters?

These were selfish worries, though so Edward tried to repress them. "Okay, it's going to be alright," he muttered, and before Alice could interrupt him he lurched onwards. "I have money… or access to money, so there's no problem there." He turned to look her in the face (which took all of his limited courage.) "I'm not going to dump you with this," he stuttered, a slight quaver in his voice. "I'm going to be here for whenever and whatever the child or you need. Not that I want to crowd you or anything," he added quickly on to the end. "Okay? Or as okay as one can be?"

Alice blinked. "Yeah," she said quietly, and with that turned and walked away.

Edward sighed. She hadn't seemed very grateful, but hey, she wasn't supposed to be. He was responsible after all, as T.V says; it's never the women's fault.

But he was going to be a father, and that rattled him. In fact, being only fifteen, the thought made him want to run for his sorry little life. But he had no where to run, (or nowhere worth thinking about) and besides, he wanted to keep some of his moral standards.

He briefly wondered whether he should tell Alice yet that the child was going to be a mutant freak (as Edward still thought of himself), but thought better of it; she had enough on her plate at the moment. The best thing Edward thought he could do was not live up to his television stereotype and be as supportive of her and his child as possible, even if he got nothing in return other then a clear conscience.

* * *

A clear conscience would have been a luxury for MJ right now. She was sat cross legged on the school hall floor, surrounded by most of the rest of the school, attending the memorial service for Vicky. She had no choice; it was compulsory, something that she was really regretting.

At the front of the Hall, Mrs. Holofeild was speaking of a "Gifted, creative and popular student, who was taken from us far too early." Liar, MJ thought. She was a manipulative cruel bitch, and I'm glad she's dead. She tried to hold on to her hatred, desperately attempting to justify the actions that had caused so many people so much suffering.

But it wasn't possible. Not even in the slightest. MJ wasn't ruff enough for it. A quick glance at her classmates – many of whom were her former tormenters, showed the pain, misery and fear in there eyes – the fear of death. MJ should (in Brick's terms) have seen this as weakness, but instead, she saw it as her fault, her responsibility. Then foolishly, she turned round the other way, to look to the back of the room. Vicky's parents where sat there, bearing their grief with dignity that an English man would be proud of. But despite there silent and quiet mourning, MJ could see the agony in her eyes. Their sense of loss was etched all over them.

MJ turned slowly back to the front, and listened a bit more to the tribute. She'd only ever seen Vicky as an oppressive bully, not as a human being who could love and be loved. Even Hitler had a mother, she thought sadly.

"Hump, I didn't expect to see you crying," muttered a horse voice. It didn't matter who it was, but they were right. MJ was crying, but it wasn't for Vicky. As the guilt from her actions tormented her soul, she was crying for herself.

* * *

Butch hadn't bothered going to work. Since Eddy was out of prison, he'd assumed that he was fired, so had spent the day looking for work instead. It hadn't been too bad a search either, thanks to Sonic's generous reference (probably because he was so pleased to be rid of them, Butch muttered) he'd already arranged three interviews.

So for now, with school done too, he was sparing with his daughter. Which was extremely annoying. "Stand still for half a second," he bellowed, as he thrashed at thin air once again.

"Don't listen to him," called Buttercup (who'd also just returned from her martial arts teaching) to SP and she dance round him again, after administering a sharp kick to the back.

Due to both Butch and Buttercups disenchantment at loosing their powers, both had work very hard to try and keep there strength up. Hence, Butch (although due to his work actually slightly behind Buttercup) was able to press one hundred kilos, where as SP (who didn't ever train her muscles) could barely manage twenty. That didn't hep Butch much though, as he couldn't even hit her.

SP landed from her latest doge just behind Butch, giggling like the child she was. "Some on Daddy," she chuckled, "you can to better then that…" Butch whipped around and finally hit her. SP cart wheeled away and landed in a heap on the floor, whimpering quietly. Butch stopped, glanced guiltily at his hand, and then hurried over.

"Oh, I'm sorry SP, I didn't mean it," he blithered hopelessly, before a thought entered his head. Why hadn't Buttercup moved to help too?

The answer came immediately when the whimpering stop and SP kicked him hard under the chin in one instant, hard enough to land Butch on his back. SP landed neatly on her feet, laughing hysterically. Butch scowled at his wife, who was also chuckling.

"You knew that was coming!" he accused. Buttercup nodded.

"She did it to me yesterday."

"You could have warned me!"

Buttercup considered this. "Nah!" she declared, "that was far more fun! But remember SP," she continued, turning to the little spider-puff, "don't try that in a real battle, because villains don't care if they hurt you or not…"

They were interrupted by a ringing telephone. Butch scrambled up and answered it. "Hello?"

"Why weren't you in work today?" asked a harsh voice. Butch straightened up.

"Hi Eddy," he replied, (causing Buttercup to tense up too) "I wasn't in today because… err…"

Eddy sighed. "How about because you were ill?" he suggested. Butch was taken aback by this.

"Umm…"

"Great, see you bright and early tomorrow then. It's hard enough to get good staff around here without you bunking off." The phone went dead. Butch looked at the ear piece astounded.

"What is it?" asked Buttercup. Butch stared for a moment longer, and then turned to his wife.

"He didn't fire me!" he muttered.

"I knew it," Buttercup replied, "he needs something to hold over Brick, doesn't he."

"Maybe," Butch thought for a moment. It didn't seem like the Eddy he knew to be so tactical. Still, maybe Eddy did need some sort of handle to be able to keep a tab on his kids. Anyway, he wasn't about to complain. "Alright," he continued, striding back across to SP, "you're not getting away so easily this time."

* * *

As you might have guessed, the full implication of what had happened hadn't quite sunk into Edward immediately. But it had arrived in fits and starts throughout the school day, which he had completed in a sort of Zombie state. At fifteen years old, he was going to have a child with a girl that he hardly knew and didn't seem to like him, and didn't even know that he was a mutant. It was a disaster.

He eventually staggered home, stressed and tired. Initially Brick was the only one there, and Edward really didn't want to take it up with him, so he waited until super, by which time mum was home. Well actually he was going to wait until after supper but an opportunity presented itself before hand;

"How was your day love," Brick asked. Blossom swallowed her broccoli.

"Alright, a bit dull really. The only thing that I can really think of is that – and I can't use really names obviously – is that one of our members daughters has got pregnant."

"Really," Brick feinted interest, as Edward tried to focus all his attention on his potatoes.

"Yeah," Blossom paused. "Could end up being a bit messy, because apparently the mother didn't even know that her daughter had a boyfriend, so it seems to have been pretty instantaneous."

Brick nodded. "Yeah, at least we knew each other," he laughed, trying not to be a hypocrite. "Still, no need to worry, its not your daughter, is it. And no danger of you Edward getting into trouble is there?"

It was meant as a statement, but when Edward didn't answer immediately, Brick became slightly edgy. Edward took a deep breath, swallowed and looked up at Blossom. In fact he looked her right in the eyes. "Mum, I've… err… sort of cocked up… like you did."

There was a long pause, during which time Blossom chewed twice and Brick lost all the colour in his face. Eventually, Blossom spoke. "Brick, MJ, can you give us some space please."

MJ, who had been unusually silent, left quickly without a word. Brick stood up more jerkily, before declaring that he needed some fresh air, and stepped outside. This just left Blossom and her troublesome son. She took a deep breath herself.

"Okay," she whispered, "just tell me now so I can get over this ridiculous thought. What's the girl's name?"

"A-Alice," muttered Edward.

"Quite short, quite, very pale skin, purpley hair?"

"Umm, yes…" Edward answered, quite scared now. Blossom nodded.

"Fuck," she said. "Oh fucking fuck."

Edward had never really heard his mum swear like that before, and it was enough to shock his into silence. There was an exceedingly long pause, before Blossom spoke again. "So, who's fault was it."

Edward stuttered, "I don't know… it just happened, I can't really even remember."

Blossom listened, but didn't respond. She was caught in too minds. The first was that she wanted her precious son away from this as far as possible. It couldn't possibly have been his fault, he was too innocent, and besides she was not letting this ruin his life. The other side of her wanted to rip him to pieces, to shout at him as loud as she could, and to tell him in no uncertain terms why this was a complete disaster.

In the end she landed half way between the two. "You're an idiot," she snapped. Edward scowled.

"I know that! Don't you think I've beaten my self up enough over this! I've ruined someone's life, do you think I feel good."

Blossom shook her head nervously. "No, no, no. She's ruined her life! You are not going down with her!"

"Pardon?" Edward stuttered. Blossom tried to compose her self. She failed.

"Don't you see what you've done here? That contract with Red Ball, any future relationship you get into, your education, you're life? There all gone now if your not careful because the child always comes first right! No, not this time," she wagged a finger slightly insanely at Edward. "We all make mistakes; the key is not to let them destroy you. You keep away from her and I'll handle it? Got it!"

Edward looked furious. "No!" he bellowed. "I'm not going to do that. It's my problem, and if you're going to be like that about it I'll solve it my self!" He stood up and swung towards the door. Blossom's mind, which still seemed to be in eight different places at once, hit the panic button.

"Don't you dare walk out, I'm not finished yet!" she bellowed, but he was already gone. Blossom sighed, and then smashed her head on the table. She hadn't handled that very well, but how was she going to convince her son that she was right? First, she needed to work out what she was right about.

There was a gentle knock at the backdoor, and after a pause, Brick let himself in. "I'm sorry," he said gently.

It took Blossom a while to compute this. "You heard?" she said. Brick nodded.

"Super hearing," he explained, pointing at his ears, "not that I really needed it." He paused for a moment, before trying to get his idea across. "You know Blossom, rather then cutting Edward off from this girl; you could just try and convince her to have an abortion."

"I can't do that!" Blossom snapped. "Buttercup would hate me for it!" she sighed. "I don't even know if I want to cut him off now. Its just so complicated." She collapsed on to Brick's shoulder, and to his surprise, he realised she was crying. "Oh what am I going to do!" She wailed. "How can this have happened? I must be the worst parent ever."

Brick gently stroked the sobbing puff's back, and reflected. His devil of a problem could wait for now, he needed to come through for Blossom first.

"Ssh," he whispered gently. "It's alright; you're not a terrible parent. In fact I think you're a great mum. Just think of all the times you've come through for them in crisis, and how hard you've tried to protect them from there past."

"I've over protected them," Blossom sobbed, but Brick over rode her.

"Now that's not true. If it wasn't for you, then Edward would never have had a chance for his dream of being a racing driver, he'd have grown up a superhero. You gave him that Blossom. I wish I'd had a mum like you."

Blossom looked up at this point. "Really?"

"Of course, I know you; I know you'd give anything for those kids. And that's why when Edward returns, you're going to sit down quietly, patch it up and help him out, just like you always do. And you can do it, you do know what the right thing to really do is and it will all be alright, because you are Blossom. Okay?"

Blossom nodded quietly.

"Going to forgive your self for shouting at your son?" Brick asked. She nodded again. "Great, I'll go find him," and with that he left.

Blossom wondered into the lounge, and sat of the sofa (she was too tense to flop.) She had to work out what to say to Edward. It was difficult. Okay, she'd perhaps taken the wrong angle initially, but her basic thoughts were right, weren't they? What she really needed was a bit of space to think…

"Mum?" came a small drifting voice. Blossom did her best not to sigh aggressively. She could really do without having to deal with MJ right now, but she supposed that her daughter was as scared and confused as she was, and just needed a bit of reassurance.

Of course we know differently; MJ's guilt had got the better of her, and she'd decided that the best thing to do was tell someone. Hence she was very surprised when her mum started by saying, "I know MJ."

"You d-do?" she quaked, completely court of guard by this.

"Of course I do," Blossom turned round with a small smile on her face, "but its going to be okay. Mummy and Edward are going to sort it out, so you don't need to worry about what he's done, okay?"

MJ stopped. "Umm… I…"

"Hug?" offered Blossom. MJ paused, and then gave up. If Mum was occupied with something else, she'd have to wait for another day. She could handle it until then. So she accepted the hug. "Better?" asked Blossom.

"Yes," lied MJ.

"Good, good," Blossom replied chirpily, "now off you go, have some fun upstairs or something." MJ left, feeling slightly deflated.

Blossom wasn't to know this, and had over things on her mind anyway. Presently, Brick returned with a now rather sheepish Edward. The red ruff left the two of then alone after giving Blossom a quick confidence boosting smile.

Edward stood in the room awkwardly for a while, during which a long pause played out. Eventually, Blossom decided to speak.

"I'm sorry Edward," she said as calmly as she could, "I lost my head a bit back there…"

"Me too," Edward added quickly.

"But," continued Blossom, "I do think I have a point. You – we – need to play this very carefully or your life could end up in a horrendous downward spiral, and…"

"Mum," Edward interrupted, "I'm scared." He was too. The colour had gone from his face, and when Blossom looked a bit closer, she could see that he'd been, and maybe even was, crying. "I-I mean there's a child, my child, with someone I barely know, and it…." He stopped and tried to compose himself. Blossom let him. "I don't know what I've got left," he muttered, in that sort of nonsensical way people do when they are extremely stressed. "I've failed my own moral standards, I might loose my future. I'm not ready for this responsibility, but I don't want my child to be raised by someone else."

Blossom thought about this last comment. "This girl," she said, trying to hide her distain. "Do you like her?"

"That's hardly the point if she doesn't like me," Edward replied sadly.

"Sit down," Blossom pointed to the seat next to her, and Edward didn't hesitate. She gave him a hug. "I don't know," she said quietly, "I didn't like Brick, and shouldn't have liked Dad, if you get my meaning."

Edward sighed, a few more tears dribbling down. "And now you say her parents are superheroes? What have I got my self into?"

Blossom decided to explain. "Right, well Alice's mother is Raven, you've met her once when you were very young, remember?"

Edward paused. "I sort of remember, wasn't that her wedding?"

"Yeah, that's it. She married Beast Boy, and they are both members. Now the important and slightly worrying thing about Raven – and something you're going to have to come to terms with is who her father is…."

* * *

Him waited patiently on the end of the phone for the line to be connected. Eventually it was, and a thunderous voice boomed at him, "I'm a very busy demon king Him, this better be good!"

"Yes, lord Trigon, I'm pleased to announce that the insemination process has gone as planned," Him responded smugly. There was a brief pause.

"I knew that already you pathetic worm! You waste my precious time just to tell me that we are still five years from success!"

Oh shut up you irritating obnoxious bastard, one day I will build my throne out of your remains, and then burn it because it's so ugly, thought Him. Actually, because Trigon could read mines, he didn't think it, he just thought about thinking it. The only reason Him tolerated the oversized monster's orders was because he'd promised him that he would be allowed to destroy the puffs. That, and also because Trigon could pretty much destroy him at will. Anyway, we digress, because Him was watching his television at the time, very closely.

"Actually," he said as sweetly as he could, "I think we can get you out of here earlier then that. A lot earlier."

Trigon hummed satisfied. "Really, when."

"Oh, two or three days sound good?" asked Him smugly. Trigon chuckled.

"And how do you exactly intend to manage that?" he asked.

Now it was Him's turn to laugh, or more sneer. "By exploiting a previously explored route." He focused on the image of MJ on the screen. "The cracks are appearing again."

* * *

"Hang on," Edward said once Blossom had finished. "Alice must have been alive at the wedding, because I was."

"That's true," Blossom replied.

"And she also said that her parents don't live together," Edward continued, "so if it's not Beast Boy then who is it?"

Blossom paused again. "Okay, do you remember when just after I'd returned from the fight with the Prince of Krypton, and got out of jail, how things were very difficult in the SSR for me, especially with certain groups of superheroes?"

"Err… have I caused a bigger problem here," asked Edward nervously.

"Not necessarily," Blossom started. "Alice's father is a member of one of the groups that was extremely supportive of me… which sort of tells you what they are like…" She stopped. This was a bit difficult.

"So who is it?" Edward asked. Blossom paused, and then told him.

* * *

Brick was still up at three in the morning – he hadn't really got used to sleeping again yet. He turned to Blossom, but she was still asleep, just as she'd been for hours now. She looked so peaceful, almost oblivious to the mounting chaos that was going to be unleashed, especially if he couldn't solve his little contract problem with Him.

Brick cursed quietly. Why did being with Blossom have to come with this price attached to it? He'd waited so long to take this position from Eddy, but why did it have to come with one of his kids? Perhaps he could keep Blossom in the dark until the day the child was born, but then what? What he needed was an ally, some one who he could ask for advice to help him solve this problem, but the he didn't have anyone he could trust; his brothers would surely leak it to there wives, and then that would be it. And the only other people who liked him were villains like Mojo, who'd be delighted to have the chance to hurt Blossom.

Brick thought for a moment. There must have been times when Eddy had been in this sort of trouble, the kind that requires intervention from a superhuman source. Eddy also couldn't have turned to any of the other puffs/ruffs for fear of loosing Blossom too, so he must have had some way of solving it.

Blossom's life was so complex, what with all the politics linked to the SSR Brick was quietly amazed that a simpleton like Eddy had handled it for so long. Sure, it was a very rewarding job, but he'd only been Blossom's defacto husband for one week and he was already in a heap of shit. Still, Brick was Brick, and one hundred percent confident of being able to find a way out if he was given enough time. The important thing was that Blossom shouldn't find out.

To fill the time and in an attempt to break up the chain of increasingly uncontrollable worries, Brick decided to go to the bathroom. However, upon opening the door, he was surprised to find the light on and Edward in there staring into the mirror, still looking miserable.

"You alright kid?" Brick asked, as kindly as he could (sure, he was getting on better with the little brat, but they still weren't goof friends.)

Edward sighed heavily. "That's the problem isn't it," he muttered. "Kid. That's what I still am. Not a teenager, not a "young adult," just a child."

"Sorry, I err…" Brick began, but he stopped when Edward turned around. He looked kind of embarrassed.

"Err... say, biological father," he began nervously, "how do you get a girl that doesn't like you to, say… like you?"

Brick's ego swelled about twenty times over. "Are you asking me for advice?" he said. Edward nodded, as if he was admitting to a crime.

"I would ask Dad, but… he wasn't very good with girls. I think Mum was a special case."

Maybe the brat wasn't so bad after all, Brick thought. "Now, are you thinking of that girl you knocked up?"

"If you put it like that then yes," replied Edward hotly.

"Ah, not a problem," Brick put a hand on Edward's shoulder (he was still a good bit shorter then him.) "Right, two things to bear in mind. Firstly, you've had this embarrassing escapade, so she's going to be a bit uncomfortable and prickly with you initially, and secondly, she is a mutant, and from what I heard with the demon powers thing, not from a very good heritage."

"So?"

"So, what's the one thing both boys and girls are most afraid of? I'll tell you, it's rejection. I'd say the reason she's pushing you away is because she thinks that if you were to find out that your child was an eighth demon you run a mile."

Edward paused. "Well most people would…"

"Yep, so what does she do? She pushes you away so that she can manage the situation – that's another thing people fear, loosing control of their lives. But, as we both know, you're a mutant too."

"How does that help," moaned Edward, who always seen his (currently absent) powers as a curse.

"It's your starting point," Brick explained. "You go to her tomorrow and confess that you're a mutant and that the child will be a freak. She'll have to reciprocate to clear her conscience, and now you both have something in common…"

"Other then having lost our virginity…"

"… yes, yes ,yes," Brick waved his hands erratically to gloss over that part. "Okay, once you've done that, you're over the moat around a women's heart, and then it's just the castle wall to go."

"Great, how do I scale that?" Edward asked.

"Err… you'll need to work that out your self. It could take years, but on paper it's very simple. All you need to do is work out what makes them tick, and then fill any gaps in her life. That's how I got through to Blossom, and your Dad did too."

"Unh?"

"You see," Brick smiled dreamily, "when your mum was a teenager, she was still a smart, confident and talented leader, but she was a bit awkward – slightly geeky if you will – and the responsibility of her position weighed very heavily on her shoulders. Plus, having just joined the SSR, she was being tipped for great things, and although she was excited, she was also scared of failing. Now I tired to ask her out many times and failed, mainly because she saw me as a self serving evil too bit thug."

"So you changed your self to fit her needs?" Edward asked.

"Nope, that's your first, yet most common mistake my son," Brick chuckled. "People don't change, ever. All I did way change the way she thought of me. It wasn't as if I wasn't capable of caring for others; I did affectively raise my two brothers, so I did have another side to show to her. I was nice to her at social events, helped her in conversation with other people, let her "accidentally" see that I could be a bit of a geek too, and when we were together, I acted as a release for her from all her stress. A safety valve if you will. Sometimes we'd do organised things like opera if she was in a cultured mood or clubbing if she wasn't, and other times we'd just wonder aimlessly while she bitched at me about her life. And occasionally, I'd help her or back her up with/on decisions she had made/had to make. And hey presto, I'd filled the gaps in her life, and she could start falling for me.

"As for Eddy – your social father," Brick continued, "Blossom was a wreak by then, paralysed by her own guilt over my death, her killing of Superman, and the fear of what might happen if someone found out. What she needed was someone who would listen to her problems, not judge her for them, and build up her confidence again. And who better then a disreputable goof ball who had nothing in his life accept a desire for money, who had just got out of jail fro small time fraud and was therefore so low down the life table that they still had to look up to even this shadow of Blossom that was before him. Your dad saw Blossom for who she really was – the way I saw her – and was willing to try to get her to see herself like that."

"How come you know all that?" asked Edward.

"I was watching the day they met," Brick explained. "I… had Blossom's hour glass. If you want I'll explain, but I warn you, you mustn't tell your mum I told you this."

"You can trust me," replied Edward.

"She was going to commit suicide," Brick explained. Edward looked shocked for a moment, but then gathered himself.

"Really," he asked quietly.

Brick nodded. "She was in a right state back then, but trust me, she's never considered it since. It was the day of Superman's memorial service, and Sonic had made her speak at it, so she was feeling pretty dam terrible. Anyway, while she was dawdling over it, she heard Eddy getting mugged, and decided to do her job and save him. Eddy, been grateful insisted on getting her a coffee in thanks, and she talked to him about it all. He got her through it."

"And you were watching?" Edward gasped.

Brick nodded. "It was… strange, to say the least. Still, I suppose that I was grateful. Contrary to what you are thinking, I didn't want to see Blossom die like that."

"So don't you feel even a little bit guilt for throwing Dad out?" Edward sniped.

Brick shrugged. "Maybe," he said, it was the first time he'd really thought about it. "But if it was me or him I'd rather it was me. You should understand that now, shouldn't you – do you want to see Alice raising your child with another man?"

"No," Edward admitted. "Okay, I'll give it a go, thanks."

"No sweat kid," Brick laughed. "You know, you and me might get on after all."

"Don't get your hopes up," Edward replied instantly, but there was an element of jest in his voice. Brick's ego took another boost. For all his other problems, he couldn't have dreamed of getting this far with the kids.

* * *

MJ woke up screaming. Screaming in fear, from the voice echoing around her head. The voice of Vicky. The girl she murdered.

MJ waited for her heart to slow down, before stumbling to the door of the room. She creaked it open, and glanced around outside. "Hello?" she murmured, but there was no response. So quietly, she closed the door, and returned to her solitude and guilt.

* * *

Morning came eventually and Blossom was back at work. Sitting in her office, she stared glumly at the paper work on her desk. It wasn't being done however, because Blossom was lost in a world of thought, mainly about how to tell Raven that the guy that had knocked up her daughter was her son.

The door opened. Blossom spoke without looking up. "You are supposed to knock," she said.

"Oh, I don't need to knock to see my little girl now do I," came the reply. Blossom looked up delightedly.

"Professor," she chirped, and she jumped up to give him a hug.

"Gee, you haven't hugged me like that in a long time," mussed Professor Utonium, "Something must be wrong."

Blossom laughed nervously. "Well, something sort of is," and she explained the situation. "I'm just so lost," she finished explaining, "I mean, what would you do if I'd got my self pregnant at that age?"

The Professor scratched his chin. "Well, knowing me I'd probably have flew into a blinding rage, insisted you have an abortion and if/when you refused I'd have thrown you out the house and shunned you for the rest of your life." Blossom blinked, but only for a moment before he started laughing.

"Come on Professor, be serious," Blossom whined.

"Okay, okay," he thought for a moment. "Well, lets be honest, I wouldn't have been thrilled. I probably would have flipped my lip initially too. But the important thing to remember is that I'd only be angry because I would be scared for your future, as you are for Edward's. But in the long run I would have supported you through thick and thin, and that's what you must do to. He's scared too, so he needs your love and guidance right now, and most importantly, your support, so that he has the courage to do the right thing."

Blossom paused. "Your right," she conceded. "I'll do my best."

"The thing I'm more interested in is how she found out she was pregnant," the professor mused, "as because Edward's a pure Ruff it shouldn't have showed up for another 4 years and 3 months."

Blossom blinked. Then she clicked. "OF COURSE!" she laughed, "Why didn't I remember that! The Pregnancy's five years, so they'll both be twenty, that's fantastic news!"

"True, but it doesn't explain how the girl got her hands on one of those special pregnancy tests," the Professor noted.

"I don't really care about that," Blossom replied, "what matters is that I now have some good news for Raven." She paused. "Can you come to? I could do with the support." The Professor quickly agreed.

* * *

Elsewhere, too, thus far minor, characters where worrying themselves too. "I don't see how she could know so little about the boy," Beast Boy pondered, "I mean, she's not the most out going type in the world. I think there's something she's not telling us."

Raven had always been impressed at how her husband had treated Alice as his own. "If you mean by that what you think I mean, I don't think its very likely," she said. "Lets be logical, Alice isn't exactly unable to defend herself."

Beast Boy conceded the point. "Right," he agreed. Alice hadn't been blessed with Raven's temper. "So why won't she tell us anything other then his name…"

"Hi Raven, Garfield," came a cheerful voice from behind. Raven sighed as Beast Boy's face changed from concerned to the standard picture of loathing and dread when ever Alice's Biological father was around.

"Hello Trunks," they both responded in chorus, although in markedly different tones. The son of the "Prince of all Saiyans," and (reluctant) President of the Capsule Corporation wondered it to the room in the typical relaxed style that flowed off Beast Boy's obvious annoyance.

"Just thought I'd deliver Alice's check today," he smiled. "Christmas is coming up so I thought I'd be charitable."

"It's still months from Christmas," snapped Beast Boy, who did not appreciate Trunks' charity, however hard up he and Raven sometimes where.

"Really?" Trunks scratched his head. "Those executives want there bonuses earlier and earlier each year. Anyhow," he laughed friendlily, "here you go." He handed the check to Beast Boy who's face fell predictably when he saw it.

"That's a lot of zeroes," he moaned. "I'm sure there's supposed to be a decimal point in there somewhere."

"Sorry, ran out of space for it," Trunks replied, "but my bank has promised to print me of a special check book next month to solve that problem." He turned to Raven, allowing Beast Boy to jump up and down in frustration at his lack of earning power behind him. "Now, I was hoping to arrange sometimes to see Alice soon, if that's possible and fits with you."

Like all things in Raven's life (much like Blossom's) Alice's "birth" had not been simple. Hence, she and Trunks had never been and couple despite the fact they had a child, so there was no malice. In fact she had always found Trunks amiable, if weird, and she almost found it funny the way he wound up Beast Boy every time they met. Mind you, she also found the way her husband was mock-chopping-into-Trunk's-back-with-an-invisible-axe funny too. As always she suppressed the laughter.

"Actually we do have a problem," she said in her deadpan way, wondering how Trunks was going to take this. "Alice is pregnant."

He didn't take this well. "WHAT! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN!!" Trunks burst out.

"At your house last Thursday," spat Beast Boy, delighted to get the chance to get one over the Saiyan. Trunks goggled, looked from Raven to Beast Boy and back again, and then he screamed.

"AGAHAHH!! Dad mentioned that Alice had come over with a friend, but she wouldn't say anything about it. The idiot!"

"What, the kid or Vegeta," asked Raven calmly, who didn't have anytime at all for either of Alice's grandfathers.

Trunks ignored this. "Do we know who the brat that did this to her is!" he demanded.

"Err…" there was a pause. The three of them turned to face Blossom and the Professor, who had just arrived. "Sort of…"

"What do you mean, sort of?" demanded Trunks and Beast Boy as one. Blossom twitched uncomfortably.

"Ahem. Well I sort of found out who the father is," she said.

"You looked into it?" Raven asked.

"No, it more sort of fell on my lap," Blossom explained. She took a deep breath. "It's my son."

"WHAT!" bellowed Trunks and Beast Boy as one.

"What?" said Raven, in a quieter, but much more dangerous voice.

"Yes… umm… I'm very sorry," Blossom replied, "but at least it means I can try to be as helpful as I said I would be… and at least it's someone you know…"

"Plus," the Professor chimed in, "due to the nature of Puff genetics, it means that the kid won't be born for five years."

"Oh what help is that!" demanded Trunks, "when my first Grandchild is going to be a bastard!"

"Oh, I think it works rather well," said a new voice. Sonic had entered quiet unnoticed, and was now wearing his special, super smug smile that he saved for special occasions.

"What do you mean by that?" Beast Boy declared.

"Think about," Sonic continued in a tone to fit the smile, "if you define the definition of a bastard as not having married parents, then Blossom's a bastard, Raven's a Bastard, Trunk's a bastard, Brick's a bastard, Alice's a bastard, Edward's a bastard, and now the kid's a bastard. Neat, isn't it?"

"There's only one bastard here Sonic," said Raven pointedly. Sonic smirked, the smile gone.

"Maybe," he said, "but that's the bastard that signs your pay checks. Get back to work!"


	20. Vegeta's Saiyan Style

Okay, I'm back at last. Sorry for the delay, I was doing exams which turned out to require far more work then I was hoping. Anyway, thanks for all your reviews and I hope that thinks will be better from now (ha ha.)

**20. Vegeta's Saiyan Style**

The following morning, Edward managed to hold on to his confidence and approach Alice. This was no easy task, because for all his feelings for her, he still got the feeling that she might suddenly swing round and rip his face off. At least he perhaps now knew why she was so prickly; being quarter demon didn't exactly make you willing to open up. It might also explain the short girl's slightly odd appearance (namely the pale skin.)

He found her in the library at morning brake, her nose seemingly buried in a book. However, Edward was fairly sure she knew he was here, because she was visibly tensed up. Still, too late now. "Err… hi Alice, can I talk to you for a minute, I sort of have a confession to make."

There was a pause. "Alright," Alice replied eventually, but she didn't look at him.

"Can I sit down?"

"Fine." She was speaking in her typical punctual tone. Edward sat.

"It's a bit awkward really," he began.

"How can anything be more awkward then in already is," Alice snapped suddenly. "Spit it out, I don't have all day!"

Normally Edward would have been completely knocked off his stride by this interruption, but if Brick was right, and Alice was – consciously or subconsciously – trying to push him away for fear of him rejecting her, this was only to be expected. So he ploughed on as instructed, by Brick and Alice.

"I'm a mutant," he said bluntly, "so the child…"

"What?" muttered Alice, trying to keep her voice down.

"I'm a mutant," Edward repeated. "I did try to break it to you gently."

Alice scowled. "You don't feel like one," she muttered.

"What do you mean by that?" Edward asked mischievously. (Blossom had told him that Raven's powers combined with the Saiyan heritage would, among others, allow Alice to have very acute senses to other people's powers. Of course Alice didn't know that he knew that.)

"I... mean physically of course," squirmed Alice. "You don't look like one either."

"Well, at the moment, I've sort of lost my powers, like all my kind. You see…"

"You're a puff?" Alice interrupted quickly.

"Oh, so you know? Here about us on the news?" Edward replied as smoothly as he could.

Alice snorted gruffly. "Listen," she spat, "if you think I need some sort of super strong hero to sweep in a rescue me you and make me feel like a little weak girl in the hands of a powerful protector, you've got another thing coming!"

"Oh that's a relief," Edward replied immediately, "because I am exactly not that. I was only telling you in case the child caused any potential problems."

"You don't need to worry about that, I'm perfectly capable," Alice snapped again.

"Oh." Edward paused for a moment, to see if Alice would take this moment to admit that she too wasn't human. She didn't, so Edward tried his other angle. "Sorry, I'm not trying to impose on you, I just want to help with the kid. A child needs to be brought up by a mother and a father, at least initially, don't you think?"

Alice didn't respond immediately, but something changed. She seemed to phase out, as if remembering something from her past. Her hand reached up to her check, and Edward suddenly noticed the faded remains of an x shaped scar. Glancing into her eyes, they suddenly seemed to be showing there own scaring; there was a brief look of genuine regret.

It didn't last long, as Alice abruptly jumped into the real world. "Shut up!" she barked, "You don't know what your talking about! If you knew who I was then you'd be out of here so fast that stupid cap on your head would be left behind!"

Edward gave up waiting. "You mean about this quarter demon thing," he said coolly, taking his Red Ball cap off and spinning it on his finger for a moment.

Not for long though, because Alice grabbed the loose arm and slammed it into the table hard. "Who told you that!" she hissed.

Edward spoke quickly in a fairly high pitch. "My mum's Blossom Panner, she knows your mum from work, remember, she was the one who told me when I told her last night, and can you let go of my arm its really hurting…"

Alice didn't. "And your not repulsed by this?" she whispered in wonderment.

"My sister's half spider, how could I be!" Edward replied, still with a high pitch. Alice stared off in to space for a moment, seemingly amazed.

"Wow…" she muttered, before Edward tapped her on the arm with his free hand.

"Can you…"

"Oh, sure." She let go and Edward pulled his limp arm away, trying to massage circulation back into it. Alice laughed, folding her arms as her confidence of their pre-sex meetings returned. "Hehe, you're going to need to toughen up a bit boy," she chuckled, "I don't want any child of mine growing up to be a weakling like you."

"Eh?" asked Edward, as Alice stood up. She walked behind him, patting him on the shoulder as she went.

"I expect you'll find out why soon," – it was Alice's turn to be cool about things – "since I suspect your mum will have told mine about you." With that she walked away.

Edward watched her go. Or more to the point he watched her bottom go. There was still something odd about her that he couldn't put his finger on, but he wasn't in a rush to complain. One thing was for sure, it seemed that Brick had been right. He supposed that meant he would have to thank the bastard…

* * *

Butch had returned to work that morning, where being a Tuesday things on the showroom floor where fairly quite. Thus he was busying himself in the workshop round the back with Nissan that didn't seem to have any gears. During Eddy's imprisonment, Double D's lack of forthrightness had led to them taking a lot of wrecks as part exchange, which meant that Butch and Ed had their hands full.

Personally, Butch had thought that once Eddy had returned to work, everything would return to normal. For him things at home pretty much had, or even better then normal. Now Buttercup was known to be pregnant, his worries over her potential departure had gone. Happiness and confidence reigned supreme inside him once again, and the weight on his shoulders seemed lifted. Also, he felt a lot better over Brick and Blossom. Of course he had been against it originally, but he now felt sure that his opposition had stemmed from selfish roots – his own fear of losing Buttercup. Now that had passed, Butch was in complete support of his brothers' relationship, even if it was with his boss's wife. Besides, that was how it was meant to be.

However, while he was wondering across the forecourt to get a particularly large hammer when he over heard talking from the main office.

"You can't wallow in here for ever," Double D was protesting vainly. "You have the rest of your life ahead of you!"

"You mean another forty years of loneliness," Eddy replied immediately. "What's the point of that? For flips sack my sons' got someone pregnant and I didn't even realise he knew how! And I've only been gone for two weeks! I'm already out of the loop, isolated from my kids. My life is over."

Well, at least Butch thought his opposition had been selfish. He stopped walking, and leant into the door to allow him to listen better.

"It's not that bad," Double D tried again. "I mean your children still love you, and Blossom can't have stopped caring about you over night. It will all seem better in a few weeks time when everyone has got used to it, and some of the more… immediate emotions have died down."

"I don't want to get used to it," Eddy sulked, "I want my family back. Why doesn't anyone seem to think I'm right? Brick just strolls in like he owns the place and just because Blossom loves him more then me see can strut off with our children and leave me with not even my own roof, and no one says a thing against either of them!"

"Well we do live in enlighten times…"

"Where marriage vows and morals mean nothing. You don't think I deserved her do you?" Eddy spat. "No one did, did they?"

Double D hesitated, which Butch assumed was a bad sign. He could imagine Eddy's head either dropping as a sign of defeat, or turning red with frustration. He wasn't sure which one. But he was sure about himself – Butch's hand had clenched into a tight fist. Now he just had to justify it.

Eddy had been good to him too, he remembered. It had been his intervention that had allowed his marriage to go ahead, by risking his neck to tell him the truth about Brick's death. Of course Brick, with a little help from Death, had saved Butch from the pit of depression that had nearly destroyed him after the baby had died, but Eddy had saved Buttercup from hers. So maybe he owed the guy something. Also, (despite his upbringing) he was keen to show that good morals still meant something to someone…

He threw open the door, which smashed into the wall hard (causing a picture to fall to the floor.) Double D and Eddy look up at him as if he were a Velociraptors, causing Butch to reflect that his entrance didn't need to be quite so dramatic. Too late now though.

"Ahem," he began, "Sorry, I couldn't help over hearing your conversation, and I just thought I'd say that I think you deserved her Eddy. If anything, she didn't deserve you!"

Eddy nearly chocked. "Pardon!" he spluttered. "You can't seriously mean that!"

"Why not?" Butch continued. "I mean, you gave her the best years of your life, full of unquestioning support and care, and she then just throws you out with no warning. Forget the bitch, your better off without her!"

"That's easy for you to say," muttered Eddy.

Butch tried to gather himself. Despite the fact that he still thought maybe he was just trying to be nice, his arms where shaking with anger. Maybe he really believed what he was saying. "I know," he declared. "How about we go for a drink this evening, me, you, Ed and Edd. A bit of alcohol in the system will make you feel much better."

"I don't know," Eddy mused. "I was planning to teach Double D's kids how to cheat at poker tonight…"

"A drink sounds like a fantastic idea," Double D interrupted quickly. "It'll be good for you to get out of the house. How about eight o'clock?"

"Alright," Eddy mumbled. Butch nodded, and left to go get his hammer, feeling a lot better about things.

Shortly afterwards his mobile went off. "Hi Butch," said Boomer cheerfully, "You free this evening, Brick was wondering if you'd like play some basket ball at my place?"

Butch laughed, his life suddenly turning to the other side of Bricks return – having his brother back. "Sure, I'll be there, but on two conditions."

"What?"

"One that I can leave at seven thirty because I've got another commitment and two, that no one else can see us; because I seem to remember the last time we played we were…"

"Pretty crap, I remember," Boomer laughed. "But that was six months ago, I'm sure our talent has returned by now."

"Humph," Butch replied, needlessly emphasising it for effect. "You've probably been out there day and night, practising, haven't you?"

"You'll out find after work. Hey, why not bring Buttercup and your kid, make a group of it."

"What about Bubbles?" asked Butch, reminding his brother. There was a pause.

"Yeah, scratch that last bit," Boomer sighed. "Well, Brick is back from the dead, so I suppose it's too much for us to ask that our wives talk to each other."

"Yep," Butch agreed. "I'd better go, since I'm supposed to be working…"

"Me too, I'm at a stakeout right now," Boomer laughed. "Although not for long, because some of our old work colleges have arrived."

"Okay, see you after work."

* * *

"Gee you two are shit!" Brick declared, as he spun the ball round on his finger. Boomer and Butch, supporting themselves with their hands on their knees, panted desperately.

"We're just out of practise that's all," Boomer protested.

"Really," laughed Brick, "Because I haven't played for ten years and I'm not rusty."

"Well excuse me for not having my powers… ten years?" Butch asked. "When did you play it while dead?"

"Oh me and Roland used to play a lot, although only when I won the toss. He preferred football… sorry soccer. Anyway, Death took our ball away when we broke one of his windows."

"I see… Right, I've had a breather, let's try again…"

Bubbles was watching them from a downstairs window – she was having a well deserved day off. After seeing Brick evade his two brothers with ridiculous ease once again, she turned away and sat down, sighing heavily.

She knew she should have been happy. She was ten points clear in the polls, finally had the large luxury house she and Boomer had always dreamed about, and was living an active and exciting life, the sort of live everyone thinks they want.

Misery reigned within though, for many reasons. The house for all its size felt empty. It sole and character, attributes that come from experiences within it's walls. For a start, the lack of a child bothered her immensely. It was pathetic; Blossom was going to be a grandmother before she'd even started breeding. Of course it wasn't that Blossom had wanted that – far from it – but the point was she was getting old. If she didn't have one soon, maybe she'd never have one.

But that wasn't the only thing it was missing. The presence of one of her sisters was the other. Blossom had been inside many a time, but Buttercup never. She'd only been in the house two years – which seemed short – but the fact that she'd hadn't spoken to her sister for longer then that made it seem very long indeed. Of course she knew why; Buttercup blamed her for the suffering she had to go through by seeing her daughter again, only to loose her immediately. Over time, Bubbles' anger over this (in her opinion slightly unfair) accusation had mellowed, and the guilt had set in. She didn't care about why they had fallen out, she just wanted to see her sister again, and to be forgiven.

This was unlikely, Bubbles thought however, due to her other problem. The massive Chaos power that had changed her so much in the events leading up to the falling out hadn't just disappeared without leaving a mark. She still wanted it, however much she tried not to. She wanted that feeling of effortless control, the sensation of invincibility that she had felt before. Every night, when she slept, it was almost as if she could feel it in her dreams. Bubbles was certain that her desire for power had driven her toward politics too. It was a desire she couldn't control, and despite the fact that Buttercup hadn't been "charged" for as long as she had, the amount of muscle her sister had worked to put on made her sure that she was affected too. Thus, if like her, Buttercup had a reminder every night of why she now hated her blonde sister, then what hope did Bubbles have?

It was sad, Bubbles thought, because she needed help. Help to overcome her lust for this energy. And the only person that might understand how she felt wasn't speaking to her, and might never.

The back door opened, and Bubbles heard Butch, still laughing loudly with his siblings, entered the kitchen. She joined him in there so quietly that the Green Ruff nearly had a fit when he turned round.

"Hi Bubbles," he said rather over-cheerfully as his glass hit the ceiling a little way behind him, "I was just having a quick drink of water."

"That's okay," said Bubbles deadpan. "Listen, does Buttercup, ever, you know, mention me?" she asked.

Butch hesitated; he was being put on the spot rather a lot today. He decided to tell the truth. "Not really no," he replied.

"Oh, okay," Bubbles replied, trying (but not succeeding) not to sound crushed. "Err, could you say hi to her for me?"

Butch thought for a moment. "Okay, sure," he replied eventually.

"Thanks," Bubbles replied. "Enjoy your game."

* * *

Edward had just finished doing his homework/quietly playing video and was settling down to see if there was anything other then crap on the television, when Blossom arrived home. "Hi Mum," he called as cheerfully as possible, "how did it go with Alice's parents?"

"Err, as well as could be expected," Blossom replied. "All in all I think they took it fairly well, and informing them that she wouldn't actually have the baby until she was twenty helped too. How was your day?"

"Alright," said Edward simply. Blossom was used to this response, so didn't bother pressing.

"Brick not back yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Okay," Blossom paused. "I need to go to the supermarket now or I won't have another chance for a week and we'll all get hungry…"

"Do you want a hand with that?"

"No," she replied firmly, "you need to call you father about this baby thing. I sent him a texted message this morning but it would be better if you were to speak to him."

"Ah yes," Edward paused nervously. "Okay."

"Good," said Blossom happily, giving him a quick hug. "I'll just whip upstairs and check on MJ, and then I better go."

Edward was therefore dialling the phone as Blossom left. After a pause Double-D answered and soon handled it to Eddy.

"Err, hi Dad," Edward began nervously, not really knowing what to expect. "I suppose you've heard about the um…"

"Hi son," his Dad replied surprisingly calmly. "Yes I've heard."

There was a pause. "What do you sort of think about it?" Edward asked.

"I think your defiantly not my biological son that's for sure," came the answer, in a slightly hurt voice. "I mean, I never pulled a girl at your age!"

Edward couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Maybe, but it wasn't sort of like that. It's complex. But other then appearance wise, I'm still more your son then his," he tried to reassure, "and surely personality matters more then looks?"

"You tell me," Eddy said, but there was a hint of happiness in there somewhere. Edward relaxed slightly.

"Listen, I don't like doing this over the phone, I've got one of those Rally school things this weekend. Do you think that you could drive me up there?"

There was a short pause. "Of course, I'd be delighted," Eddy replied, now defiantly happy. "Mind you, you ort to check out how this baby thing effects your working relationship with Red Ball."

Edward squirmed. He didn't really want to think about that. "Can't we just not tell them?" he asked.

"Maybe, if you don't become a success, but if you do, you can guarantee that some sleazy tabloid journalist will dig this story up. Best that you at least gauge a possible reaction." Eddy thought for a moment. "Tell you what, why don't you call that guy on the development program… you know, Timo."

"What, the co-driver?"

"Yeah, he seemed nice, see what he thinks."

So, soon enough, Edward was tapping yet another number into the house phone. He'd thought about calling Mum on her mobile to ask if he could make a call to Finland, but it was seven thirty and therefore off-peak, so how expensive could it be? The phone rang a few times, and then Edward got the rasping sound of a Finnish accent.

"Ya?"

"Err… Hello Timo, this is Edward Panner, the…"

Timo adjusted very quickly into English. "… American kid that wasn't on crack! Ya, I'm coming to ze driver training you've got this veekend, so ze can see how you go again, ya?"

"Err, ya," Edward replied. "Actually, I'm calling because I've got a potential problem with umm… publicity. I've sort of got this girl pregnant, and…"

He was interrupted by the sound of Timo roaring with laughter, and speaking loudly in Finnish to someone else in the room, who laughed too. By the sounds of it, it was possibly his wife.

"I didn't realise you have the balls for zat," he said once he'd stopped laughing. "You and I must have a drink sometime."

"I'm fifteen," Edward replied. There was a pause.

"Ah yes, stupid American laws, I remember now. Well, maybe a whisky in the trailer then. You deserve it!"

"Umm, don't you think there might be a problem with the company it they find out," Edward inquired.

"Nah! They'll probably like it. Specially if you marry the chick." He laughed briefly again, causing Edward to squirm. "Okay, see you around boy." The phone went dead.

Edward put it down. "What a strange man," he muttered. He sat back for a moment, and then noticed that MJ was lingering in the door way. She looked… sad. Seeing as Edward was having such a good day, he remembered his promise to look out for his sister, and beckoned her over.

"Hia sis," he said cheerfully. "What's the matter?"

MJ approached carefully, as if she had something really awful to tell him (which, as we know, she did.) "Umm, can I speak to you about something?" she asked.

"Sure, what?"

MJ paused. She didn't really know how to say this; should she just spit it out or should she try to more subtle. Maybe she could say it was a friend that had killed Vicky. Yes that might work – he'd probably see though it, but at least it would be easier for her to say.

However, before she could decide, there was a knock at the door. MJ jumped, and Edward could instantly tell she was nervous. "Humph, a bit early for Brick or Mum," he mused. "Listen, you think about what you're going to say while I deal with this, that way we won't be interrupted. Okay?"

MJ nodded, but when Edward headed to the front door, she followed closely. Her spider sense was tickling her slightly.

Edward opened the door expecting to see a double glazing salesman, or something, so wasn't surprised to be greeted by someone in a suit. What did surprise him was that below his floppy-fringed lavender hair was a fairly harsh scowling face or pure anger, and the fact that the visitor was accompanied by another man. He was shorter, and wearing what appeared to be a dark blue very tight fitting full body-suit of which the top half was covered by a white, flexible armour. It looked like something some of the superheroes wore – which fitted well with the fact that the second man was built like an Olympic athlete and then some, in comparison to his slightly skinnier companion. However it was the spiky black haircut and the unforgettable scowl that gave it away, it was the person Alice had said was her grandpa. By the time Edward had cottoned on to this, the first man had already started talking.

"Hello good sir," he said, loading each word with heaps of scorn. "Allow me to introduce my self. My name is Trunks – chairman of the Capsule Corporation – and this is my farther Vegeta…"

"Ahem," Vegeta muttered, causing Trunks to roll his eyes.

"The umm Prince of all Saiyans," he muttered. "I don't suppose you know me, but I can guarantee that you know my daughter quite intimately!"

Edward gulped, and decided it was probably better if he stepped outside – less things might be broken that way. "Pleased to meet you," he said as cordially as he could. "I… I assume you are quite upset about this… incident, but I promise that…"

"That what!" Trunks spat. "That you'll undo this mess? Reinstall the innocence of my daugther?"

Edward wondered if they were talking about the same Alice. "I was more thinking money wise," he finished lamely. Trunks laughed hollowly.

"That's really not a problem," he said. "The problem is that you made a whore of my daughter and I want you to pay for it!"

Edward gulped again and decided at this point to shut his eyes. However, there was a sudden red flash, which convinced him to open them again. The site that greeted him was one that he never thought he would find comforting. Brick was standing in front of him, almost nose to nose with Trunks.

"I would advise you not to talk to my son like that," the red ruff hissed menacingly, "least you want your face smashed in."

MJ, who'd been watching from the sidelines, was almost jumping for joy. "You tell him," she rasped with the excitement of a child. Edward wasn't so sure.

"Umm, Father, maybe you should…" he began. Brick waved him away.

"I've got this one kid," he chuckled, before giving Trunks his full attention again. "Right, you have twenty seconds to get off my lawn," he commanded.

Trunks was unmoved. "I'm not going anywhere mate until I have an apology from your little brat and a promise that he will do the honourable thing from now on."

"I would be happy…" Edward began, But Brick cut him off.

"You'll receive no such thing you floppy haired wet bastard," he replied calmly. "My son has done nothing that you haven't done."

"That was different," Trunks flustered slightly, "Me and Raven didn't… well… it was completely different!"

"How? And you have seven seconds!"

"I'm not allowed to tell you," Trunks stormed. "Besides, that's not the point, the point is that you son violated my daugther."

"Rubbish," Brick replied calmly, "As I understand it, your daughter violated my son."

"Pardon!" Trunks gasped, nearly choking on his words.

"I don't know about you," Brick said – clearly enjoying winding up Trunks – "sex is a two way thing, so your daughter is equally guilty of violating my son as the other way around. Unless you're accusing him of rape, in which case you better have some evidence to hand."

"THAT'S ABSURED!" Trunks flapped. He spun away, taking a few steps back and then turned again, in the style of a man desperately trying to think of something to say. "I… I… Dad, help me out here."

"Sure, call the old man for help," Brick mocked. "But he's only got five seconds to make his case and then its tarmac time for both of you!"

Vegeta grunted, and took a few steps forward. He looked Brick up and down, and considered things for a moment. Then he smiled. "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE!" he said. "Well come on then punk! Make me eat tarmac!"

Brick smiled. "You're an idiot," he said smugly.

"I don't think…" Edward began, sweating rather a lot, but he was dimly aware that MJ had already closed her eyes. She had just remembered something else about Vegeta, and Saiyans in general.

"I mean," Brick carried on regardless, "your dead for twenty years and everyone forgets who you are!" He swung a lazy, but none the less hard punch right at Vegeta's face. The Saiyan Prince flicked his head out the way, grabbed brick's extended hand, yanked him forward by it into his other fist, pummelled him rapidly in the chest six times and then kicked the startled and winded Ruff through the front door and back into the house in about a second.

"We're done here Trunks," Vegeta declared, as Edward took a fairly rapid step back, MJ opened her eyes and Brick cannoned into the far wall.

Trunks was not much happier. "How did that help!" he demanded.

"It made a point," Vegeta replied determinately. "Besides, I've wasted enough time here, I have other things to be doing."

"What things? You don't even have a job! Your time is worthless!" Trunks protested as Vegeta shot, of flying away into the sky. He turned furiously to Edward. "This isn't over!" he declared, before flying off himself.

Edward and MJ stood there for a moment. "Okay," Edward muttered. "I've knocked up a complete freak. One Granddad is a demon and the other is a psychopath!"

"He's worse then that," MJ noted. "Remember when Mummy lectured us about not all the superheroes necessarily being nice? She mentioned that Vegeta used to wipe out the populations of planets for a living."

"Oh yes," Edward muttered. Of course he'd changed quite a lot since then, and even saved the world a number of times, but that didn't mean Edward had to like him. "I hope Alice takes after her mother, rather then that disgusting murderer," he muttered.

MJ looked hurt. "Mummy killed someone, remember?"

"Ah," Edward thought quickly. "Yes, but that was different – she did it in a rush of blood, on the spur of the moment. But someone that kills in cold blood… they are the scum of the universe. Anyway, what were you going to tell me before we were interrupted?"

MJ froze. Hadn't she killed Vicky in cold Blood, following Brick's instructions to callously make the girl suffer? Would she seem any better in Edward's eyes then Vegeta if she told him? She couldn't cope with her brother hating her. "Err… nothing…" she muttered. A groaning sound from behind helped out. "Shall we go help Brick up?" she suggested.


	21. Revalations and Revolutions

Hi again, I said I'd be back sooner this time. It would have been even earlier, but then a Polish man called Kubica decided to prove how safe modern formula one cars are by nearly killing himself, which sort of knocked me off my stride. Still, let's get on with it.

Oh yes, this chapter is extremely long, so if you need to go, go now. Thanks.

**21. Revelations and Revolutions**

Being a Ruff Brick recovered quickly from his physical injures, although his pride was badly hurt. So much so that it took a lot of convincing from Edward and MJ to prevent him steaming back of after Vegeta.

"He just caught me off guard, you do know that!" he protested vainly. "I'd have beaten him if I hadn't underestimated him."

"Sure," responded Edward, totally unconvinced. "But seeing as you still can't stand straight, I think you ort to stay here, at least until Mum gets back anyway."

Blossom returned at about eight thirty, and was less then pleased when she found out what had happened. "But I do agree with Edward, you shouldn't go after him."

"Why the hell not," Brick snapped angrily.

"Because," said Blossom in a tone Brick hadn't heard since they were teenagers, "he'd probably pound you into a small mushy pulp anyway."

Brick look indignant at this. "Well what can we do then? Doesn't he work for you? Then you could punish him!"

Blossom cocked her head on one side. "Technically no," she said. "He's only an honorary member of the SSR; he doesn't go on patrols so he doesn't get paid. But then again he might find that his card doesn't work in the training facilities when he comes in tomorrow."

Brick rubbed his hands gleefully, but he was interrupted by Edward, who was unloading the shopping. "Err… why have we brought a sleeping bag Mum?" he asked.

"Oh, well since you're going to be travelling a lot with this new rallying thing I thought you might need one."

"I suppose so," admitted Edward, although he was personally hoping that Red Ball would be able to provide him with hotel rooms. "Where should I put it for now?"

"Oh, somewhere where you can remember."

"Right, I've got just the place."

* * *

Leaving Brick and Blossom chatting downstairs, Edward went to his room. On the way, he paused outside his sister's. There seemed to be no sound from within, so he assumed she'd popped out for a bit, as she did. Nothing wrong with that, he supposed, although when she returned, it might be an idea to see if he could pull out of her what she'd been trying to say earlier.

For now, be settled for trying to jam the sleeping bag under his bed. Of course, being a teenage boy, this was impossible: there was far, far too much rubbish there already. So after a moment's consideration, he decided that he could put it in the spare bedroom. I mean that was nearly empty.

So throwing the door open, he dropped the bag to the floor, and kicked it under the spare bed. All would have been well, if it hadn't been for the accompanying sound of smashing and clattering that went with this activity. Once he'd finished wincing, Edward got down on his hands and knees, and peered underneath.

The reason for all the banging quickly became apparent: Brick was still storing all his stuff down there. After checking no one was coming up the stairs, he felt around underneath to see if anything all broken. In the process of this, he knocked out a sheet of paper. It was clearly a contract, to which Edward would have paid little attention too, if he hadn't just so happened to catch the word "Grandchild" in the corner of his eye.

* * *

MJ was sat about two or so miles away on top of a water tower, contemplating her situation in as mature and rational a way as she could manage. Which means she was biting her lip and trying not to cry.

Was she really no better then Vegeta, or any other murderer? No, it wasn't true; she had a good reason, and it was an accident, wasn't? She hadn't gone out of her way to kill Vicky she'd… just taken a relaxed attitude to the safety of another human's being life – decided that her own happiness and desire for revenge where more valuable then someone else's existence. Her heart fell again. How big a jump was it from this undervaluing to a complete disrespect for the existence of others – to taking a job where killing was paramount?

She looked longingly out into the night's sky. How great would it be to be out there, free of all the responsibilities and the past that came with her existence on earth? To be free to carve out a new life for herself, a life where she could let go of all her inhibitions and be the slightly crazy person that half of her wanted her to be, the half that she always suppressed.

MJ knew she didn't truly want that. She'd miss her family far too much. But now she'd done what she'd done, how could she live this life with this self? A thought occurred to her. "Mum had been through this. She killed someone and felt the terrible crushing guilt over it, she suppressed her powers and personality when bring me up, and she had the chance to leave it all behind while fighting that Prince from Krypton, and she was able to turn him down. There must be something that she knows that is worth holding on to!" She stood up, and nervously breathed in the night air. She could go to Mum for help, but that would require telling her what had happened to Vicky. Sure maybe she'd be angry initially, but it would be worth it in the long run, just as it was for Edward with his little girl problem.

Still, she didn't exactly hurry home.

* * *

When Blossom went into the kitchen to get a drink, she was surprised to see that the some of the shopping still hadn't been unpacked. "What's taking Edward so long upstairs?" she wondered. Deciding to investigate this, Blossom went to the bottom of the stares and called upwards; "You okay up there son?"

There was no verbal response; Edward merely appeared, looking as white as a sheet. Being his mother, Blossom quickly picked up on this. "What's wrong?" she asked kindly.

It would be the last words she'd say in that tone for some time, Edward was fully aware of that. But he had no choice really – he couldn't really keep this to him self. So he proceeded slowly down stares, and handed her the contract. Then he waited for the explosion.

It didn't come, not initially at least. Blossom read it slowly, and then a second time, and a third, just to be sure. Her hands started trembling slightly, but she managed to maintain some composure. She looked at Edward but only for a moment: the fear of the situation and her reaction written across them was not useful right now. Instead, she very tightly walked slowly into the lounge where Brick was still sat.

Like Blossom for Edward, Brick could instantly tell something was wrong with Blossom before she'd even entered. Unaware of the reason for her distress, he hopped supportively to his feet as soon as she entered. "Everything okay dear?" he started caringly, and then he saw what was in her hand.

"No," said Blossom tightly. "Not unless you can explain this."

Brick was no longer relaxed. In fact he was tenser then a member of parliament that will go to jail if he looses the immunity connected to his seat on Election Day. "Blossom," he stuttered. "You've got to understand that I didn't know I had a kid when I sighed that! It had never occurred to me… I… I was in hell, I was desperate to get out, to get to you!"

There was a flicker of emotion on Blossom's face, but for once Brick couldn't read it. "Why didn't you tell me," she said hoarsely.

"I thought I could sort it," Brick replied truthly. "I didn't think that your… our child would manage to fuck someone quiet so quickly…"

"Why the bloody hell not!" Blossom suddenly exploded. "Are you so stupid! How can you possibly have trusted Him! He's played this every step of the way, setting you up, Edward up, Alice up. Do you have an idea how much shit we're in, because I'll tell you how much! If the child gets taken by Him then I'll lose the entire base of my support in the SSR, I'll probably lose my job, and its not as if your earning any money, not to mention the emotional distress your about to cause…"

"I'm not causing it!" Brick snapped furiously. "It's Him that's causing it, I'm a victim here too you know!"

"A victim of what!" scoffed Blossom, shaking with anger. "Your own arrogance in thinking you could out wit Him that's what! You should have accepted your lose as soon as you knew what was going on, and then we could have done something about it. But no, your ego's too sodding big for that! You always have to sort everything your self, and now you've put us on the verge of oblivion!"

"Don't over react, you always do that! What harm can a child do?"

"A half Puff, quarter Saiyan, quarter Demon child? Fuck loads!" Blossom spat. "Assuming he's not intending to use it to literally break all Hell loose. How can you possibly defend your actions? "

"I had no choice," Brick protested, "I had to get out…"

"At all costs?"

"Oh shut up!" Brick bellowed. "When you've spent four years in Hell without descending desiring anything other then a way out, you can lecture me on "all costs!" You have no idea what I've been though!"

"Really?" said Blossom stepping closer to him in anger. "How close is utter desperation? How close is watching your sister be dumped by the one man she truly loves because of your actions, and still stick by you even as it destroys her? How close is having your entire personality eaten out from the inside by your own sense of guilt? How close is standing on a bridge with a knife in your hand, wondering which part of your body to plunge it into! Knowing that no one knows who you are anymore, that no one understands you, that you are going to die completely alone!" By now she was almost nose to nose with Brick. (Or place where nose should be to place where nose should be…)

"Don't shout at me about things you don't understand you over sensitive bitch!" Brick roared. "You have no idea what its like to be completely alone!"

There was a long pause. Then Blossom turned away, swinging on her heal and walking slowly into a corner. Brick took a few deep breaths and tried to compose himself. "Blossom, I…"

"Get out Brick," she interrupted immediately.

"Pardon?"

"Out, now. I don't need this." Her voice was cracking but firm.

"What!" Brick staggered. "No, I can…"

"GO!"

There was another Brief pause, and then he left, slamming the poor over-worked front door behind him with unnecessary force. Blossom slumped into a chair, and her head fell into her hands. She couldn't take this, it was all too much.

She could feel Edward lingering at the door way for a moment, but the child had more sense then to stay there for long, and quickly departed for the solitude of his room.

Blossom felt totally alone once more, with the entire weight of the world and her family falling on her. Sonic seemed to have cut her out of the loop at the SSR already, so this could only make it worse. Raven was liable to flip her lid when she found out that a demon from hell was destined to get her first grandchild, and that was putting it somewhat mildly. And then there was Edward… and Brick, but Blossom tried not to think about that.

What she needed right now was a bit of unconditional support, from someone who she knew wouldn't turn on her and blame her for this. Someone who wouldn't waste there breath or her time trying to come up with solutions, but instead would just try and look after her feelings for a bit, and only then would help her bounce some ideas around. What she needed right now was… well, Eddy. Her husband. But that was a no-no, so she decided that Buttercup was the next closest thing. She was liable to voice her opinion slightly too early and too forthrightly for Blossom's mood right now, but only slightly. And she also wasn't likely to take offence if Blossom lashed out suddenly – or not much offence.

She reached over to grasp the phone, but pasted over it and snatched at Brick's contract again. She just wanted to read through it one more time…

"Admiring my handy work I she," said an oily voice. "Do you like it?"

Blossom swung round in a mixture of quacking fear and furious anger. "What do you want!" she hissed.

"Me?" said Him sweetly. "I'm just here to gloat and to see you sitting in your own excrement."

Blossom wagged a finger dangerously. "Listen you spaghetti skinned c(word that would raise this story up a rating level)t, if you want your sick and twisted revenge, just attack me now. I don't have any powers, you could kill me easily! Leave my family out of it!"

"Now where's your sense of fun?" Him chuckled. "Besides, that would really upset my boss."

"What?"

"You see as long as you're here," laughed Him in an almost friendly manor, "Brick will want to stay, and for all your shouting you'll want him to stay, so you won't rip up that contract. However, if you where to die, then Brick wouldn't have anything to loose and probably do the right thing."

"Wait… boss?"

"Yes," mused the demon sadly. "There comes a time when most small businesses must consider a take over proposal, and when the benefits include getting to torture you and your sisters to death over a thousand years as he destroys the mortal dimension, then the decision was easy!"  
Blossom took a few deep breaths, quaking vigorously. "Who?" she asked simply. Him laughed.

"Your son's mother-in-law should know him well," he sneered, "or am I getting ahead of my self a bit? Of course you could end it all by just ripping up that contract, but you'd loose Brick forever, and I know you can't stand that – your far too weak!" he glanced at an invisible watch, as Blossom, paralysed with anger, just looked on. "Now if you would excuse me," Him said, "I must go now, I have another appointment. See you in five years… or hours!" And with a puff of red mist he disappeared.

Blossom stood there seething. She was too angry for words, too angry for thought, too angry for description. She was almost too angry to breathe. The bastard had completely beaten her, and the worst thing was that he was right; she couldn't rip up the contract. It was in her hands, the paper on the point of tearing, but nothing she could do would make her put that little bit more extra effort required in. She couldn't just throw Brick away, no matter how furious she was with him right now.

She was still trying to sort herself out when there was a slight knocking at the open door. "Erm… Mum?" MJ asked from the doorway. The child had been out during her last few arguments, so there was no way that she could tell that Blossom really wasn't in the mood. Equally, there was no way Blossom could stop herself from venting her angry on such an easy target.

She swung round with fire in her eyes. "FOR FUCK'S SAKE MJ, CAN'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE FOR TEN MINUTES!!" she bellowed with all the ferocity that she had wanted to use on Brick, Him and possibly Edward. Venting anger like this is a natural human reaction, but so was Blossom's instant feeling of guilt as MJ crumpled before her eyes.

"Sorry…" the little spider-puff mumbled before disappearing at alarming speed. Blossom swung back round on her heal and dumped her body miserably in a chair. Now she'd shouted at the one person in her family she wasn't angry with. Great. Fantastic. She was surely the worst mother in the world. How can it all have gone wrong so quickly? It wasn't really a question that she wanted to contemplate the answer too.

The phone rang beside her. It was an eerie sound in a house that had been completely silent since she'd lost it. Eventually, Blossom managed to gather up enough composure to answer it. "Hello," she said, sincerely hoping that it wasn't Brick.

"Hi Blossom," said Raven in a slightly stressed version of her normal tone, "Alice had just shot out the house rather abruptly, I was wondering if she'd turned up at yours?"

Of course Blossom could have done without speaking to Raven right now, but she hadn't thought that as a possibility. "Has she? Well she's not here yet?" Blossom said in as normal a tone as she could.

"Well can you let me know if you see her, she seemed panicked about something, but she didn't tell any of us about it."

Blossom suddenly clicked. Shit, that idiot Edward must have told her! She couldn't hold off the truth then. "Umm, I might have an idea about why anyway," she said nervously and explained the situation, to an earful of obsessive silence. Raven's silence didn't end as soon as she'd finished, which worried Blossom.

"Raven?" she asked. There was a slight pause.

"Its okay," Raven eventually said. "We still have some time. I hope you know what this all means Blossom."

Blossom knew. Raven was not stupid; she knew that Brick meant a lot to Blossom, and wasn't going to come out and state that Brick should be sent back to Hell. It was merely implied. She took a deep breathe. "Rest assured, if it comes to it I will do the right thing. But shouldn't we… I mean you be able to defeat him anyway, like last time."

"On his own yes," Raven said sharply, "but not if he has a Saiyan-Puff on his side. But I ort to go now, I should find Alice before she does anything stupid."

Blossom winced. "Maybe I could help," she suggested.

"Please don't," Raven said, "I know my daughter, that's only liable to make things worse." However, being a very empathetic person, sensing Blossom's regret down the phone, she softened a bit. "Maybe you could get your sister to help though, if they'd be willing."

"Okay, thanks," finished Blossom, before hanging up. She might be in a lot of trouble, but there was no point giving up just yet. She needed to get her priorities right to, so for now her thoughts over Brick could wait… for as long as she could stand it.

* * *

MJ had fled straight upstairs to her room on the verge of collapse, but only once she'd closed the door did she let go entirely. It was in the form of a howling wail that was so high pitched it didn't make a sound, before she collapsed face first into her bed, smothering her unstoppable flow of cries and tears with her pillow.

All her safety nets had failed her; Brick was the one that had pushed her into it in the first place. Her Dad had told her not to be happy about someone else's death, so MJ assumed he wouldn't help. Her brother had said that all cold blooded murderers were disgusting, so he couldn't help, and her mum hadn't even wanted to know. There was nothing left for MJ to reach for, so she just fell and waited for the emotional splat at the bottom, which wasn't far away.

As she cried desperately, she didn't notice the new arrival in the room until he spoke. "Aw, don't cry MJ," Him said sweetly, "your better then this."

MJ wheeled round, still chocking on her tears. "You lied to me!" she hissed. "You told me that with these powers, I'd be invincible, no one would be able to harm me! What rubbish," she sniffled, "I can even be harmed by myself."

Him did his best to look affronted; well enough to fool MJ at least. "My dear child," he said, "it is no the powers that is the problem, it is the application. I told you at the time if you wanted to be safe you had to make the rules. Be firm and strong, and let no one treat you how you don't want to be treated. When you killed Vicky, you where doing the right thing!"

"If you haven't noticed," MJ spat, "that's why I'm so miserable!" She spun back round and buried her head in the pillow again. Him smiled and put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her upright again. "I can help you with that," he said. MJ looked up instantly.

"You can?" she said.

"Of course. You see the problem is that most human emotion of guilt. It holds you back. Guilt is a side affect of the desire of mankind to be a social being. It stops you acting always for your own benefit, like an animal would, thus allowing you to have a friendship with other humans. But," he continued, "you don't like other humans, do you?"

"No, I like people," MJ said hurriedly.

"Liar," Him replied instantly. "You don't like anyone at your school, and you don't care if they don't like you, so long as they leave you alone. The only people you genuinely care about is your family, and look how much they helped you! If it wasn't for your conscience – your guilt – you would be able to show your true self, and to be happy, and you wouldn't have to worry about tolerating people you don't like anyway."

MJ thought for a moment. "You can remove my conscience?" she asked.

"Technically, not me no. I tried that with you earlier, remember, but unfortunately you went crazy and tried to kill your family. But I do know someone that can remove it without driving you mad."

MJ thought for a moment. She didn't really have many memories of the time shortly after her mutation (since Eddy and Blossom had been so happy to have there daughter back in one piece they hadn't lectured her much over the circumstances) but she was sure there was something wrong with listening to Him. But then again, she was desperate. "Err… and losing my conscience won't cause me to lose me family right?" she asked.

Him snorted. "As foolish as I think it is for you to still show any care for them, no it won't, because you'll still have that emotion that's called lo… l… the opposite to hate. And," he added, "with out your conscience bothering you, you won't need to annoy your mother by asking her for help all the time."

MJ nodded, her crying stopped. "So it can only be good?" she asked.

"It will unleash your full potential as a person," Him said with elaborate accompanying gestures. "But I must warn you, this friend of mine is a bit of a grumpy old fart," he said in a jokey tone of voice, "so let me do the talking, and he will probably want something in return. But it will be something your capable of. So what do you say?"

MJ thought, but only briefly. "Okay, I'm up for this, where do we go?" Him laughed. "Not far," he said, "but then again, miles and miles," and in a red puff, they both disappeared.

* * *

Butch was having a good day. Over the course of the session of Basketball with his brothers he'd improve dramatically, SP had got a very good progress report from her teacher, Buttercup hadn't caused him any problems when he'd relayed Bubbles' message (although she didn't wish to reciprocate) and he was walking home after a drink at the pub with some friends. Okay then, a few drinks.

He and the two Edds had done well in getting Eddy into the swing of things, and Blossom's husband was now very cheerful. So as men do, as the four of them walked, they were bullshiting about something completely random.

"I tell you," he repeated again, "you could mount the nuclear reactor in the back of the car, and then the engine can stay in the front."

"Can't," replied Ed, "the reactor would be far too big, you need too much fuel."

Double D looked impressed, in a dizzy sort of way. "You've been reading that book I got you," he said, surprised.

"I do when I'm having a long shit," Ed replied, returning to his standard too-much-information mode.

"But the points valid," Double D continued, "the car would have to be huge."

"That's no problem," Eddy said, "you just make the car bigger. We have wide highways, so it'll be okay."

"But then you can't export them," Butch said, "because the Europeans like small shit."

"Pah!" Eddy replied with appropriate hand gesture, "We don't need the foreign market. A nuclear car would sell well enough here for that not to matter."

"And we'd solve global warming too!" added Ed, obviously pleased about that.

Butch was about to make a point, but he forgot what it was as soon as his mobile started to ring. "Hello Buttercup!" he said cheerfully and loudly, "I'm on my way home!"

"Great," said Buttercup distractedly, "listen, I've just got off the phone for Blossom and it appears that the child Edward got pregnant has gone missing."

Butch sort of sobered up. "What, why?"

"Long story," Buttercup replied, "but can you keep an eye out for her on the way home?" She gave him a brief description of Alice.

"Sure I'll try," Butch confirmed, before hanging up.

"What's the problem?" asked Eddy.

"Your son's girl friend's gone missing," Butch said, "they were wondering if we could keep an eye out for her."

"Ah," replied Eddy, who suddenly seemed sad again. "I hope she's okay."

"Err, what are we supposed to be looking out for," asked Double D.

"Short girl of about fifteen, pale skin, lavender hair, small x-shaped scar on one check, sort of like that girl going into the building over there…" there was a pause. "What where the chances of that?" Butch muttered.

"Pretty high considering this is a story," replied Ed quickly. The four of them wondered cautiously over to the small building. It turned out to be a community centre.

"I know this place," said Double D, "they do some community counselling here, where people can get a chance to talk to a therapist without paying."

"What!" interrupted Eddy indignantly. "Ah you saying that the women carrying my son's child is about to have a potentially vital conversation with either a second rate shrink or a Harvard graduate that's been caught littering? I'm not having that! If she has a problem she should discus it with someone she knows!"

"But none of us know her," pointed out Ed, quiet correctly for once.

"Maybe we should go call her parents and tell them where she is?" suggested Butch, but Eddy wasn't listening.

"You know, it may just be the alcohol talking," he said, "but I've just had a brilliant idea!"

"I knew it," muttered Double D.

* * *

Dr. Lime had not been caught littering. He had actually been caught speeding, and he was certain that would be the last time he ever dared to go sixty eight on the freeway. Still, this was his last night and then he was free.

A secretary knocked on the door. "We have your next visitor Dr."

"Oh good," the doctor replied, with merely implied sarcasm. "Who is it?"

"Another anomalous, I'm afraid; only gives her first name as Alice. Young kid, probably in some sort of family trouble."

Dr. Lime nodded. "Okay, give me one minute and then send her in."

It was only after the secretary had left that he realised the last part of that request had been a mistake, because the minute waiting time proved to be perfectly long enough for Butch and Ed to mug him and steal his coat, so that Eddy could substitute for him.

* * *

Eddy didn't have much time to make himself comfortable, which also meant that he didn't have much time to reflect on the fact that this was actually a very bad idea. Still, he managed to settle himself into his chair and attempt to memories the fact that his name was Dr. Lime when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said, dearly hoping that Alice was alone. Fortunately, she was. Eddy put on his most reassuring tone of voice. "Hello, do take a seat," he offered. "My name is Dr. Lime," he said purposefully, making sure he got the tricky bit out of the way quickly. "What seems to be the matter?"

Alice was very pale. Having seen Raven a few times, (mainly at the SSR Christmas do,) Eddy was unsure as to whether this was natural. Alice looked at him intently for a moment, and then sat down and stared at the floor. Eddy decided to give her time. Eventually she looked up.

"I have a rather strange question," she muttered, and then she stopped. "Ah forget it. You'll probably just laugh" She stood up again, and went to leave. Eddy briefly wondered if he should let her, but only briefly.

"No, please, I'm trained not to laugh!" he blurted. Alice stopped, and fixed him with a harsh stare. Eddy mentally ticked himself off, but pushed on regardless. "Even the most stupid seeming and trivial question can reveal a massive amount of information about a person's mental state, and… err solve much bigger issues," he finished lamely. But the therapist babble seemed to have installed some confidence in Alice, but she chose to remain standing.

"Alright then," she said, before pausing for a moment. "Is it right to bring a child into the world if it's only going to suffer?"

This, to be honest, was not the sort of question Eddy had been expecting. "What makes you say that?" he asked, for a lack of anything else to say.

"Trust me, I know," Alice replied. "Just tell me what you think I should do. Keep it or not."

Eddy thought for a moment. He could hardly say not, since it was his own grandchild (in his head anyway) and if Butch was still in ear shot he'd kill him. But he wasn't entirely sure how to argue yes, so he did the old physiatrist trick of asking more questions. "Do you come from a family that might hurt the child?"

"No," yes Alice so firmly that Eddy didn't doubt her.

"Is the child disabled?"

"I don't know."

"Then I am slightly confused," Eddy put on his best upper class accent, "as to how the child is going to suffer. Perhaps you could elaborate?"

"No!" Alice snapped. "I can't. I just know that it is, and that I don't want to put anyone else through that…"

"Ah ha!" Eddy said, immediately dropping the cool attitude. "Else!" Alice squirmed, as Eddy tried to compose himself. "Look, I know you haven't made you mind or you wouldn't be here. So why don't you tell me about the scar on you cheek. It might help?"

Alice looked up furiously, but then her anger appeared to die, and defeat spread across her face. "You wouldn't be able to cope with it," she mumbled.

"Try me," Eddy replied, "you might be surprised."

Alice paused, obviously not happy with this development. "Fine, if you think you're so good! What if I… have a friend that was cloned from two, err, super humans by an illegal organisation to be an assassin, and spent the first five years of her life being trained to kill and tortured for failure. Then how, if I know my child will just be a weapon for someone else, could I let it suffer a similar fate?" For someone describing such a disturbing past, Alice looked fairly impressed with her self, obviously hoping that she'd blown his mine a bit.

Eddy was glad he was slightly drunk. It made that a lot easier to take all this in. "And where is your friend now," he asked. Alice squirmed.

"That's different," she blurted.

"Is she reasonably happy with a caring family and a bright future ahead of her? Then how come that can't happen for your baby."

"I said it was different!"

"How?"

Alice squirmed again, she obviously didn't enjoy being corrected. "It just is," she replied, but she didn't seem very convinced.

"Well, if there is absolutely no hope at all for the child," Eddy admitted, "then perhaps you should consider some other course. But even if there is just a tiny glimmer of hope, I think you ort to at least talk it out with your family first. Okay?"

Alice nodded. "Thanks," she muttered, and headed for the door. However, she stopped with her hand on the handle and turned back to him. "Umm, how come you didn't freak out," she asked.

"What, from that little story?" Eddy laughed (slightly drunkenly,) "I've heard much worst. My daughter's half spider you know."

Alice slowly removed her hand from the door and tensed it into a fist behind her back. "Oh really," she said. "Tell me, do you have a son…"

* * *

Blossom was mopping at home, for lack of anything else to do. Actually to be fair, she was sick with worry and trying to find the courage to go upstairs to apologise to MJ. It wasn't easy; your children are some of the hardest people to say sorry to, and Blossom was a long way from being settled enough to do so.

She was still doing this when the phone rang. She glanced at it suspiciously. At best, it would be Raven to say that Alice had been found, or Brick calling to admit his guilt. At worst, it would be Sonic, fresh and ready to cause her another problem.

Thinking she'd better get it over with, she snatched it up. "Hello?" she said nervously.

The reply she got was the last thing she was expecting. "Oh bollocks, wrong number," cursed Eddy, before quickly adding, "wait, please don't hang up, I only get one call!"

"Eddy?" Blossom gasped. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the Police station," Eddy replied. "This is my one call and I need bail!"

Blossom sighed. "What have you done now," she asked, in such a relaxed tone it felt like…

"Nothing," protested Eddy as always. "I'd just found that girl friend of Edward's and was trying to help her, but when she found out I was his father she went psycho and attacked me, and then we got arrested for it!"

"Really?" Blossom asked.

"Well… there was also this knocked out physiatrist, but Butch and Ed did that! They'd fled of course, bastards. Anyway, please come get me out, there's still some money in the joint account if you want to use that."

So it was that Blossom found herself at the police station half an hour latter, having left Edward in charge back home. (She was still unaware that MJ was missing.) She appeared to have arrived late, because Raven was just leaving with a rather sheepish looking Alice. Blossom hoped that they'd ignore her, but instead Raven dragged Alice right over.

"I've told her the situation," Raven said gesturing to Alice (who shuffled her feet like a nine year old,) "so I think she has something to say to you."

Alice muttered for a bit, and then spoke. "I'm sorry for attacking your husband," she muttered. Blossom wasn't sure what to say.

"That's okay," she managed eventually, before turning to Raven. "Aren't they going to press charges against either of them?"

Raven shook her head. "They were, but then the "blue tornado" arrived. You just missed him." Good old Sonic, thought Blossom, but Raven wasn't done yet. She gestured to the cells behind her. "You've a good man in there," she muttered tonelessly as usual. "Strange, but good." And with that they left.

Eddy was released shortly afterwards, "And without having to pay bail either, that Sonic's one great boss." He paused, and looked at Blossom, quiet sadly. "I'm sorry for dragging you all the way out here, I'll be going."

Blossom watched him for a bit. "Err… hang on," she said. Eddy stopped. Blossom sighed. "Can we talk for a bit?"

* * *

They ended up in the park. (Then nice part of the park, that is, where it is well lit.) The reason they where there was mainly because it was close to the police station and that there was a bench to sit on. It was gone ten by now, but being late summer, the sun was still sinking slowly away, giving the city around them a slight orange glow. It would have been a sight to enjoy if Eddy and Blossom hadn't been quiet so nervous around each other.

Eventually Eddy pressed the point. "What do we need to talk about?" he asked. Blossom said nothing for a moment. To be honest, she didn't have anything specific to say or a starting point.

"I don't want things to be awkward between us," she said eventually. Eddy looked at her.

"That's a lot to talk about," he said bluntly, "considering you threw me out of my home less then a week ago."

Surprisingly, Blossom nodded. "I'm sorry," she said. "I wish I there could have been a better way to do that." They sat there for a moment.

"What's really wrong?" asked Eddy. Blossom blinked.

"Pardon?"

"Come of it Blossom, I know you don't really need me that much. So why are you here? Children giving you trouble over this?"

Blossom was shocked. "No, do you really think I wouldn't want things between us to be okay? We did spent the last sixteen years together! That means a lot to me."

It didn't last week, thought Eddy, but he managed to only think it. "Maybe," he ceded aloud, "but you've got Brick now, like you've always wanted." The bitterness was difficult to hide. "Surely you only need me to write the checks." There was another lone silence.

"Please don't hate me Eddy," Blossom asked eventually. "I can't take that right now."

"Well unless you tell me the truth, though," Eddy replied. He turned away. Blossom looked at him, trying to sort out her thoughts. She felt that oppressive feeling of loneliness spread over again, to the extent that she hadn't felt since just before she'd met him. What had she done? Eddy had always been there for her, had always loved and cared for her, and tolerated her manic depression, and she'd just used him and thrown him away like an immature child. Sure, he wasn't perfect, but nor was Brick, come to think of it. Brick… through the chaos of emotions, a clear thought arrived.

"You know about that contract don't you," she whispered. Eddy looked round.

"What makes you think that?" he asked, but Blossom was certain of it.

"Raven told you when she took Alice to apologise!" she declared. "It all makes sense. You really think I only want to talk to you because I've had a row with Brick, don't you."

"It would make sense," Eddy spat. "Your entire life has been about him, hasn't it."

Blossom didn't deny it, but the words sliced straight through to the centre of her heart like nothing he'd ever said before. She almost immediately collapsed in tears, crying hopelessly. "What am I doing," she wailed. "Am I really so caught up in him that I've let everything else go?"

Eddy gave her a week hug, patting her gently on the back. "No, no," he said with a slight sigh. "Its not Brick that's the problem. Its not his fault that Edward's knocked someone up, MJ's seems so depressed at the moment, and that Sonic's cut you out the loop. You've just been overtaken by life at the moment, in a flurry of bad timing. It will get better, I promise."

Blossom sniffed. "Brick returning should have been the best time of my life," she muttered.

"Yeah, well life's shit," Eddy chuckled weakly. "Think of it like a bad birthday. It'll pass."

"Really?"

"Yeah sure," laughed Eddy. "This is what you always wanted, right? Him and company will be defeated and it'll all be back to normal at the end of the story I'm sure, except you and Brick will be happy together and there will be a grandchild on the way. Isn't that what you've always wished for?"

Blossom thought for a moment. Was it? There was someone missing from the image in her head. "What about you? What's your dream?"

"For Brick to be ripped slowly apart – no, seriously, I…" he paused. "I'll be fine. Now dry those tears, and go home."

Blossom nodded, but part of her didn't want to. A small part, but a definite part. She looked at Eddy, who'd returned his arms to his side by now. "Thanks Eddy," she said, and then for a reason she couldn't fathom, she kissed him briefly on the lips, before walking calmly off. In fact, so calmly that she barely reasoned that it had taken place until she reached her car.

Eddy now stood alone, looking after her sadly. Well, he'd done the right thing, he supposed, but not just for her. The break was necessary; he couldn't take living with someone that didn't love him only again. He tried not to think about the kiss though, instead thinking about how he only seemed to do the right thing where Blossom was concerned.

He didn't have long to think about it however, because Brick had grabbed him by the neck shortly afterwards. "What the hell where you doing with Blossom!" the Ruff demanded furiously. To his further annoyance, Eddy refused to be rattled.

"Don't you have anything better to try then threatening me again," Eddy scoffed. "I know you won't try it. So why don't you just put me down."

Brick scowled. "Listen! You had your chance, let her go. She's mine."

"Yes, that's what I just told her," Eddy replied, with a smug satisfaction. Brick stopped.

"What."

"I told her that it had always been her dream to be with you, and she accepted that and went home."

Brick put him down. "Why?" he asked.

"Because I value her happiness before my own," Eddy spat, "unlike some people." Brick looked up at him.

"You bastard," he muttered. "By telling her something that wasn't of benefit to you, you've…"

"Done what I did for sixteen years of marriage," Eddy finished. "By putting her first I'm putting me first, because I know how grateful she is for me doing that."

"Fine," Brick moaned. "I suppose that means you've won."

Eddy laughed hysterically. "Oh my goodness me, you are such an idiot," he said. "Of course not, I've just got the best possible defeat, unless you want to hand victory to me."

Brick was now confused, and angry. "I'm not an idiot!" he barked.

"Fine, I won't tell you how to get Blossom back, see if I care." Brick jumped.

"You know…" he said. Eddy nodded.

"It'll cost you though," he replied.

Brick sighed. "What?"

"Two simple things. You buy out my half of the house, and when it comes to negotiating times for seeing the children, you leave it to me and Blossom. Understand."

"Yes, yes whatever," Brick snorted angrily. "This better be good," he added dangerously.

"It sure is. Buy some flowers and go home," Eddy replied, and he turned on his heal to leave.

"What! That's it!" Brick screamed after him. Eddy stopped and turned round.

"Yes, why, too complex for you?" He thought for a moment. "If you need to know Blossom has a soft spot for roses."

"Don't play dumb," Brick snorted. "We just had a huge argument, that won't work!"

"You think I don't know my own wife after arguments?" Eddy countered. "Blossom's not very good at holding grudges, by now she'll be feeling really guilty for shouting at you… and has probably bellowed at one of the kids to, just to make her feel worse. All you need to do is show that you love her, and then you can start a more constructive conversation. I take it that you can manage that." He started walking off again.

"I'm a Rowdyruff," protested Brick vainly, "I don't do flowers!" but Eddy wasn't stopping a second time.

* * *

Blossom had got home safely, but couldn't bring herself to go up stairs yet. She was too confused. Did she really want to spend her future with Brick, or is that just what she thought she wanted? Maybe she really wanted to stay with Eddy, but was that just because she was scared and wanted to default back to the safe option. Or did she only think that. Or think that she thinks that?

Yes, she was defiantly confused. Deciding that a glass of water might help her think clearer, Blossom was on her way to the kitchen, when the door bell rang. Grudgingly, she half opened it, to find a sight she really never expected to see. Brick was standing there with a bunch of flowers in his hands, smiling rather nervously. Actually, "very nervously" was more appropriate. Blossom almost found herself laughing.

"Brick you look like an idiot," she said, pushing the door open entirely. "Or more to the point, you look like Boomer."

Brick blinked. "Err… what happens now," he tried. "I'm… I'm sorry I screwed up," he suggested, "but I only did it because I love you." He sighed. "I guess I should have respected you too."

Blossom sighed. Her initial thought was right. She did love Brick, more then anyone. But that didn't help with her confusion. I mean if that was the case, where did it leave her feelings for Eddy?

"Come on in Brick," she said, "I… I'm sorry for what happened earlier. We'll sort this out together, okay?"

"Got it," said Brick gratefully entered, giving Blossom a quick hug as he pasted. However, Blossom didn't follow him back inside. Instead she grabbed the car keys. "Where are you going?" Brick asked.

Blossom looked at him reassuringly. "No where much. Look after the kids for me, I need to speak to someone."

"Who," asked Brick worriedly.

"Not Eddy," Blossom replied, guessing his next question, "I'm not sure who yet. I'll be back though." With that she departed into the night.


	22. Sonic on Blossom

Okay, it appears that the story fell fairly rapidly off the front page when I last updated, so most of you appear to have missed it. Anyway, I advise that you just check to make sure you have read the last few chapters, especially if you're one of the few that normally review.

**22. ****Sonic on Blossom**

Having watched Blossom go, Brick sat down, and considered what to do next. He supposed that his best bet was just to wait, and think of a way for them to perhaps sort out Him. He wondered if there was anything he could offer in exchange for his grandchild, or whether a contract could be annulled by beating one of the participants to a bloody pulp.

Of course the other thing he could be doing is trying to pacify Edward, who was bound to be at least slightly angry with him. But that was something Brick would rather put off for as long as possible – just like meeting anyone related to Alice again. In fact, once Brick had given it some consideration, he was able to reflect that the situation with Blossom had only been the start of his problems. There were bound to be a lot of people after his blood once they found out, which was probably how Him had planned it.

However, before Brick could quite finish getting his head around it all, the door to the lounge was thrown open and Edward staggered in. Brick jumped.

"Ah, Edward, hi, listen," he began, but his son cut him off.

"Have you seen MJ?" he asked, sounding very worried.

Brick was caught somewhat off guard. "What? No, why?"

"She's not in her room," Edward replied, before zipping out again to continue his search. "Shit, I promised I'd keep an eye on her!"

Brick got out and wondered out after him. "Relax," he said. "MJ often pops out at this time, I'm sure she's just gone for a swing."

"Without this?" Edward waved her mask in Bricks face. There was a moment's pause.

"Yep, shit might be right," conceded Brick.

* * *

Even if the two of them had wanted to call Blossom, they would not have got through. Her mobile was off; Blossom didn't want to be contacted right now. It was late, and the sun was now gone, replaced by an eerie full moon glowing in the nights sky. Yet she was still on the move. There was no point in stopping, Blossom needed answers to her questions – her doubts – and she could not rest until she had found them.

The problem was, where could she go? Who could she trust to give her completely impartial advice, with no preconceptions, no tact, and no desire to prioritise Blossom's happiness over the truth? Blossom drove round in circles for what seemed like hours, past Bubbles, Buttercups and the Professor's doors, but in the end, she was just delaying the inevitable. There was only one place, and one person from whom she could get the advice she needed.

"What do you want?" Sonic spoke through a mouthful of lasagna. Despite his years of bachelorhood, he'd clearly never learnt to cook properly; in fact the microwave in the corner of his office appeared to be extremely overused.

Blossom hesitated. She didn't really want to reveal to Sonic the situation with the baby and Him just yet. Of course if there was no solution he'd need to be told, but the gloating would be endless. "Err… I've got a problem," she said eventually.

"I know," replied Sonic.

"What, how?"

"Because you've just told me." The last of lasagne was swallowed. Blossom sneered.

"I'm being serious," she spat, "can't you respect me enough to listen?"

"Maybe," said Sonic. He pushed his plate to one side, and flopped his feet on to the desk. "Care to find out?"

Blossom sighed. "You once said that we were very similar, didn't you."

"I might have."

"Then explain this one. If I know that I love Brick and want to spend the rest of my life with him," she began confidently, before developing an involuntary whimper, "how come I still miss Eddy so much."

Sonic shrugged uninterestedly. "Guilt?" he tried.

"No," replied Blossom, slightly airily. "Its complex, I mean when I'm with Eddy things feel right, but when I'm with Brick things feel right right, if you get my meaning."

"Of course, you could not have made that any clearer at all."

Blossom shot him a look. "Shall I take it from you constant sarcasm that you can't explain my feelings?"

"Oh that," Sonic chuckled and flipped a pen in the air. "That's easy."

"Pardon! Easy to explain how I seem to love to different men at once!"

"Its easier then the solution to one of those ridiculous Darren Brown novels." Sonic smiled almost friendlily, and then resumed eating. Blossom stood there for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time before finally ceding.

"Umm, are you going to tell me the solution?" she asked.

Sonic looked up. "Eventually," he said, "if you can't work it out yourself. Think about it for a moment. What do you actually need Brick for."

"Well…"

"Assuming that I don't want to know about disgusting human sex," the hedgehog added quickly.

"Umm… well, I need him for the life I get every time I see him. I like, sorry need the way he challenges me and my opinions, and occasionally can beat me at games and such. I need the sense of excitement, yet also familiarity he brings to a situation, and…" she paused. "I just like spending time with him."

Sonic nodded. "Good answer. Now, what about Eddy, what do you need him for?"

Blossom thought for a moment. "Support," she said confidently. "I need to get things of my chest to him, as someone to talk to who generally won't contradict me when I don't need to be, who can rebuild my confidence when its low and my self esteem when damaged." She paused. "I trust him more then anyone else," she muttered, "for flips sake, I tell him things that I don't even tell my sisters. And we do have fun together too."

Sonic nodded. "There you are then."

"What?"

"You just answered your own question, or do I have to spell it out to you?"

Blossom looked blank. "Sonic, please, I don't know, just tell me what your getting at!"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "You'll kick yourself," he said, "but from what you've described, it says one thing to me. Brick's your lover, but Eddy's your best friend."

Blossom was stunned. Sonic was right, It was so obvious. And yet… "I married my best friend," she muttered.

"Sure," said Sonic, "makes sense doesn't it? At the time you were an emotional wreck, so the marriage wasn't really for sexual reasons, or to have children, it was so you could be with Eddy for as long as possible. I am right in saying that at the time he was the only person you felt comfortable around?"

Blossom nodded. It was beginning to sink in. "What do I do now?" she muttered. "I… he won't forgive me will he?"

Sonic smirked. "You need both a best friend and a lover don't you," he said smoothly. "I know I did."

Blossom looked up. "What if I can only have one? Sonic, who do you miss more right now, Sally or Tails?"

"Sally," replied Sonic without blinking, "but then again I have just had a three hour phone conversation with the fox."

Blossom chocked. "Do you know how much those intergalactic phone bills cost!"

"No, but my expenses do," Sonic replied. "But don't change the subject. We're on your problem today…"

"I know."

"… and you need to find a way to convince Eddy to still want to spend time with you."

Blossom sighed. "Maybe," she muttered, "maybe I could find a new best friend."

"Ha," Sonic laughed. "I don't think you want that."

"Why?" asked Blossom. The office phone started to ring. Sonic picked it up, but finished talking to Blossom first.

"Think about who's next in line," he chuckled, and then he turned to the receiver. "Sonic the Hedgehog… Oh, hey Knuckle head, to what do I owe this pleasure…" There was a pause, and then Sonic suddenly looked at Blossom very intently. "Say that again Knuckles…" he muttered.

* * *

Him had taken MJ the long way round. They had reappeared on the edge of the Forbidden Demon Zone in Hell, and she was now being led right to the centre of it. On the way they passed hordes and hordes of demonic creatures. There were many different shapes, sizes and colours, but they all had two things in common. They where all armed as if ready for an invasion, and they all looked at MJ as if she was a snack.

The young Spider-puff found this extremely scary, the fear temporarily overriding her sense of guilt. But only temporarily. She tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me," she said quietly, "but did Vicky get sent here when she died?"

"What when you killed her," Him replied smoothly, "yes, I suspect so, or somewhere like this at least. She'll be just about beginning an entirety of suffering. But don't worry," he said, smiling a sickly smile. "In a few minutes time, you won't feel bad about it anymore."

Up ahead, MJ saw a huge, rock like fortress emerge. The entire place smelt of evil, horror and fear, but MJ pushed on. She couldn't live with the pain of her actions anymore. A couple of guards approached Him as they approached, but they quickly waved him through and inside. MJ looked up at her red spaghetti guide, and instantly read his expression. It was pure jealously. "Err… where are we?" she asked.

"The waiting room in the palace of the demon king," Him replied bitterly, gesturing to all the elaborate, yet terrible picture and decorations in the room. It was clear to MJ that he converted the position himself. Still, this should earn him a few more bonus points, he thought.

Him turned to MJ once more. "Once in side, try not to run away," he hissed. MJ nodded.

"What… what should I say?" she asked. Him laughed.

"Oh, don't worry about that, you'll be far too scared to say anything."

At this point, two huge doors opened in front of them, and Him led her inside a massive hall, at the centre of which was a huge throne made of skulls, upon which sat the demon king.

MJ wasn't as scared as she could have been. Sure the blood red creature, with four glowing eyes and sliver hair was about the size of a skyscraper, and appeared to my half antelope, but she managed to remain standing. To say she wasn't scared though would be completely wrong.

Trigon looked at MJ briefly, and then turned to Him. "Why have you brought this mortal dirt into my presence?"

Him smile in a mixture of smugness and fear. "My lord, this is no ordinary mortal," he replied with confidence. "She has been known to see the collectors of souls that work for death, and she is more then capable of killing and slaughter." He laughed. "She should even be able to get you out."

Trigon raised an eyebrow, and turned back to the mortal. "What is your name?" he demanded.

To MJ's and Him's surprise, she didn't freeze up. "MJ sir," she managed, just about. Trigon studied her intently.

"Yes, I see. You are an interesting being. One who has attempted to embrace the hatred in their heart, but has failed." He smiled. "I can read you mind, pathetic child, and I know all you thoughts and desires. They interest me."

MJ gulped. "Then can you remove my guilt?" she asked. Him winced.

"Don't speak unless you are spoken too!" he hissed, but Trigon laughed.

"Of course I can," he said, waving away Him's complaints, "but I do not see why we should stop there. All you need do is agree to serve me, and I'll give you the power over those humans you've always wanted."

MJ jumped. "Really?"

Trigon nodded. "I can tell you really want to be one of us…" He raised his hand, and MJ was suddenly engulfed by a ring of fire.

* * *

SP didn't like using her bed, preferring to sleep hanging from a dark corner of the ceiling. Hence, when Buttercup and Butch heard a thud as they were getting ready for bed, they knew what it meant.

"SP's had a nightmare," Butch muttered. Buttercup nodded.

"Maybe we should leave her too it now, she is quite old," she suggested. However, they didn't get that choice, because the bedroom door was thrown open, and SP, already dressed in her costume, darted in.

"Hi mum, dad," she said without stopping, because she didn't stop until she'd reached Butch's sock draw, which she threw open.

"Where are you going at this hour?" Buttercup demanded, but the normally obedient SP didn't stop. She franticly threw all Butch's socks out of the draw quickly, as if looking for something.

"I had a dream about MJ," she replied, before looking at them earnestly. "Stay safe." And clutching the item she was looking for in her hand, she flew off out the window, leaving a purple streak behind her.

Butch and Buttercup stood there for a moment. "What did she take from your sock draw," asked Buttercup. Butch shrugged.

"Not sure," he said, before something struck her. "Did she just fly?"

Okay, short chapter for cliff-hanger reasons. The rest will probably be about this length. Thanks for reading.


	23. Super Saiyan Pride Comes Before a Fall

Okay, we are now in the final stages of the story, which means the violence can begin!

**22. ****Super Saiyan Pride Comes Before a Fall**

As the flames flickered away, MJ wavered a bit, and then fell over forward on to her knees. She prevented her self from going face first into the ground however, and stood there on all fours for a moment, vomiting spectacularly. Presently, her breathing steadied, and she began to sense and feel sensations other then pain again.

The most obvious initial sensations came from what was missing. She felt clear headed, and light, almost joyous, as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. In reality, it had been. There was no longer the lingering guilt in the back of her head nagging her about her actions. Trigon and Him had both been as good as there words; MJ felt better then she had ever felt before. It was a slightly strange feeling though, the feeling of complete justification. Everything she'd ever done had been right, and for the first time in years, MJ felt proud of her self. Heck, she actually liked herself.

At this point, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the messy puddle on the ground. It was her eyes which grabbed her, they burned once more, there "natural" bright pink colour. She jumped upwards, spinning her self upright in the air, and letting herself hover, with a look of astonishment on her face.

She flashed her power suddenly, building a pink, crackling, flame like aurora around her, burning in a demonic fashion. MJ was certain she'd never felt this powerful before… or been this muscular. Sure, she'd done a number of sit-ups and press-ups, but now, with her powers back, her body and upper arms had significantly bulked up. She swung her arms around gently, getting a feel for it, before instinctively reaching up for her forehead. An S like mark was burnt on there; the mark of her new master.

There was no fear in her heart either now. Like the puff she was, MJ zipped upward effortlessly, until she was floating level with Trigon's four massive eyes. A wicked smile spread across her face, and then she bowed obediently.

"Your will is mine master," she said politely. Trigon smiled.

"Good," he said. "You know what to do."

MJ bowed again, and in a flash of pink, she vanished. Trigon sat there for a few moments, putting his hands together to reflect on his achievement. By becoming his servant, MJ had allowed him to release her current full potential, and in Trigon's experience, few had had that much to be released. Those puffs where more powerful then they knew… or maybe wanted to know. It was a shame he had promised Him that he would let him destroy them, they could have been useful.

"Ahem." Him coughed politely. Of course for Trigon, promises were only advisory, but at the moment he was feeling favourably towards his fellow demon.

"Ah yes," he chuckled. "When the porthole is opened, how would you like to be my lieutenant?"

Him looked amazed. "It would be an honour," he replied, bowing.

"Of course it would," smirked Trigon. "Of course it would."

* * *

Given Blossom's current mental state, both Brick and Edward had decided that it would be a good idea if they attempted to find MJ before she returned. So they'd split up to go and look for her. In a way, Edward was glad of it because it meant he had something to do other then sitting around the house worrying about the fact that his first child had been promised to a crazy demon, and it meant he wasn't anywhere near Brick right now.

The downside was that he had to walk. Edward really wished that he was a few years older so he could drive. Brick of course had the advantage of flying, but at least Edward knew where MJ liked to hide. Thus far however, his search had turned up nothing.

Presently, he found himself plodding down a narrow street in the suburbs in the, umm, let's say not quite so affluent side of town, because that is how Edward would have put it. The houses where smaller and made from cheaper materials then Edward was used to, but despite the time of night, the area seemed to be busy, with a number of people still outside the front of there houses. This, as far as Edward was concerned, was a bad thing, since MJ was unlikely to be near people, so he pushed on, hoping to find a quieter area on the other side of the street, when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"How did you know that I lived here?" Alice asked. Edward jumped.

"I didn't, I was looking for my sister…" he began before stopping. Alice wasn't dressed in her normal clothes. Instead she was wearing a fighting uniform similar to the one Vegeta had been in earlier, which, as I said, was very tight fitting.

Alice smirked. "Yeah, stop looking at me like that."

"Oh, sorry," Edward mumbled gathering himself. "How did you know I was here?"

"I sensed your energy," she replied. "You lost your sister?"

"Err… yes, we've had a bit of a rough evening, and she appears to have run off. But I suppose that's not just true of us," he tailed off.

"Maybe," shrugged Alice, "my parents are inside now, discussing it. They say it'll be fine though."

"You believe them?"

"Yep. Why, don't you trust your parents?"

Edward paused. "I don't know… my dad tends to be a bit of an optimist, and my mum a bit of a pessimist. But I don't trust Brick if that's what you're getting at."

Alice just nodded in response, but suddenly, a startled look spread across her face, and she swung round, before staring at a point at the city centre. Edward was confused by this.

"Err… what's the matter," he asked quietly, almost whispering it for fear of disturbing her concentration.

Alice didn't appear to be bothered. "There's a fairly large power level over there," she muttered, "and it doesn't feel friendly."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh right," Alice shook herself. "Sorry, forgot how ignorant you are. What I mean is I'm sensing that there is a very strong mutant or something in the city centre and it appears to be braking stuff." She smile excitedly, an expression Edward had never really seen on her face before. "Wana go check it out?" she suggested.

"Not really, I need to find MJ, and I'd just slow you down walking."

Alice sniffed. "Why not just fly, or are you so anti-mutant you won't even use your powers to help your family."

"Hey, I've done that once or twice," Edward snorted. "Besides, I don't have any powers right now, and I don't know how to fly!"

Alice smiled. "Doesn't look like that to me, red eye," she chuckled, turning away and pulling softly on her hair band. "Besides, as I understand it, if you really are Brick's son, then you're a pure blood puff, so you should be a natural."

Edward goggled. "But, I wouldn't even know how to start," he protested, desperate to keep up the habit of a life time.

"Oh I can help with that," Alice replied sweetly, offering him her gloved hand. Edward took it with limited hesitation. He smiled nervously at Alice, who smiled reassuringly back. Then, with a twitch of her wrist, she hurled him upwards. "This is the Saiyan way of learning!" she shouted up after him, as Edward flapped his arms around in surprise.

Everything seemed to slow down as Edward reached the top of his trajectory. It gave him a bit of time to think. Of course there was the old standard, "What the hell have I got my self into," thoughts, but these where combined with a new, "If I don't work out how to fly very soon, I'm going to hit the ground a lot harder then I want to…"

Then the falling started, and Edward flapped his arms around for a bit, before giving a very un-masculine scream and shutting his eyes. When he opened them again, he had stopped. Rather further off the ground then he was used to, but he had stopped. In fact he was floating.

Once he'd got over his surprise at how easy it was, he shot an evil look at Alice, who'd drifted up along side. "I suppose that's your idea of fun!" he fumed.

Alice chuckled. "Yeah. You know, I think we'll be just fine."

"We'll?" asked Edward. Alice looked away nervously.

"You'll have a much better chance of finding your sister up here," she stuttered. "And she might be able to see you too, so umm…"

"We'll?" Edward repeated again. Alice sneered.

"Race you to the city centre," she laughed, and she shot off, leaving her own two streaks of white behind her.

Edward sighed. Maybe if Alice was right and there was some sort of trouble in the city then MJ was liable to be there to. That was what Superheroes liked to do. Just as long as he didn't have to do any fighting.

* * *

"Yes, I'm absolutely certain," declared Knuckles. "All the emeralds are fully operational once more. The island is floating again, and they gave Shadow a rather nasty electric shock."

"Oh, what a shame I missed that," Sonic muttered. They were down in the labs now, with Knuckles on the video phone, and the Professor performing some checks on Blossom, which mainly seemed to involve staring down her throat.

"Can't see anything different," he muttered.

"Were you expecting to?" Blossom asked.

"Not really no," replied the Professor. He ignored Sonic's loud sigh and picked up a small torch. "Okay, open your left eye please darling," he said. Blossom did so, and the Professor shined the light in it and had a good long look before Sonic finally snapped.

"Oh for flips sake I can see that it's pink again from here!" he fumed. "Why not just get her to try a bit of flying and prove it that way."

"Now, now, now," replied the Professor calmly, "if a jobs worth doing, its worth doing properly. If you cut corners then you end up in the same sort of mess as poor Knuckles is in now."

"Was in," corrected Knuckles bluntly from the screen. "All systems are now operational once more, although that is officially the last time I let Tails fix the plumbing."

Sonic was about to retort (as the professor took Blossom's blood pressure slowly and methodically,) when Gohan sprinted into the room carrying a mountain of papers. "Knuckles," he asked hurriedly as he flipped rapidly through then, "did you successfully manage to stabilise any Chaos energy sources on Mobius before this mass recovery?"

"No, but not for lack of trying," replied Knuckles bitterly.

"Okay," Gohan paused. "We needed three stable sources…"

"And Brick was one," added the Professor.

"So that leaves two sources that have stabilised without our knowledge," finished Knuckles.

"Tell me Blossom," Sonic sneered, "how many scientists does it take to state the bleeding obvious because at the moment the count is three. Any advance on three!" Of course Sonic had addressed the question to Blossom because, seeing as she had a thermometer in her mouth she was currently unable to reply.

"It may seem trivial," replied Gohan in a slightly hurt voice, "but my data indicates that the two other sources have stabilised very recently, in fact almost at the same time."

"So what, the universe is a big place, it could be anywhere."

"Maybe," interrupted Knuckles, but my equipment indicates that all three sources are on earth and very close together."

"What about our equipment," asked Sonic, who was disinclined to trust the ancient echidna technology.

"It's pretty much reading the same thing," replied the Professor. Sonic mopped his brow.

"Okay, so what your suggesting, is that two Puffs have got there powers back somehow at the same time, and that's fixed everything?"

"Pretty much," replied Gohan. He paused for a moment. "Say Blossom, have you and Brick err… done it tonight?"

Blossom jumped. "What? Hell no. Not tonight. Why?"

"Just looking for a trigger."

Blossom jumped off the table she'd been sitting on, but she didn't touch the floor. "Okay, the powers are defiantly back." She spun once on the spot to emphasis the point before pausing for a moment. "Is that a bad thing?" Sonic mealy grunted.

* * *

MJ was having great fun. A good proportion of the sounding population was running away, which as far as she was concerned was a good thing, since it gave her more space to balance cars. Having stacked nine of them on top of each other, she was about to lob a tenth up there, when Edward and Alice arrived.

"What? MJ?" Edward choked. Her sister turned round slowly.

"Hi Edward," she said happily. Her brother stared in amazement at the stack of cars and the burning mark on her forehead.

"That better be a temporary tattoo!" he bellowed. "What on earth do you think you're doing!"

MJ laughed (that felt good in it's self. She hadn't laughed much recently.) Then she lobbed the cars high into the air with surprising ease, and vaporised the lot of them with an eye blast. "Me? I'm just creating some business for Daddy. What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you home!" Edward declared, walking over the street to her. "Now!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," muttered Alice. It was only now that MJ noticed her. She should have been expecting her, Trigon had said that she'd come. But she didn't expect her to be with her brother.

"What is she doing here!" MJ whimpered suddenly. Edward stopped, and looked back.

"Err…" he began, not entirely sure what to say.

"I'm carrying his baby," Alice replied calmly, "so why shouldn't I be here?"

MJ growled with anger. So Edward's girl friend was just another person that had hurt her. She glared at her brother with the full demonic anger she now had inside her. "TRAITOR!!" She wailed, and before Edward could protest she wrapped some webbing round his leg and spun him around above her head, before hurling him at Alice, obviously with the intention of causing some damage. So she was disappointed when Alice just caught Edward calmly.

"Leave this to me, okay," the Saiyan-demon said calmly. She dropped the dizzy Edward gently to the ground, and stated at MJ.

"Your dead, like everyone else who has ever hurt me!" MJ hissed, spitting a lump of acid to the ground to emphasis the point. Alice watched it burn through the tarmac without flinching.

"If you're stupid enough to work for my grandfather, I doubt you know what your talking about," she replied. "The only thing that awaits people wearing that s mark is death."

MJ stuck her teeth over her front lip. "Maybe, but would be better for me then the life I was living. I've not been this happy in weeks! I'm going to enjoy this."

"Yes, if you're partial to pain, you'll enjoy this," Alice laughed. "You better not be wasting my time." This time, MJ said nothing. Instead, she just spread her feet, and bent over forward, supporting her self with one hand in front and one behind, in a spider-like way. Then, she crouched down to jump, but instead of actually jumping, she used this tensed position to power her self up. Alice couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as the flame pink aurora suddenly flashed up around MJ, and with a burst of light, the spider-puff charge forward.

Alice dogged the punch with ease, but was caught by MJ's leg coming in from behind. The Saiyan stopped her self easily enough, but MJ popped behind her, and booted her skywards, before webbing her back down into the tarmac. Alice rolled back on to her feet, and this time blocked MJ's attacks, before kicking off her and flying up into the air above MJ and firing a couple of Energy blasts down towards MJ, which the spider-puff leapt around with typical grace.

Edward watched Alice in amazement. He had no idea she could do that. MJ seemed pretty hyped up, but even when she was normal she was stronger then any of the other puffs. So Alice must also be, he thought, as the two girls exchanged blows equally for about a minute above his head. MJ then managed to get a bit of space, and by shooting two web lines to the floor, she catapulted herself feet first into Alice's face, and followed it up with an eye blast. This left an impressive creator in the ground, but Alice had landed some distance away after another doge. MJ also landed, and stopped, panting slightly. Alice smiled.

"I must say I'm impressed," she chuckled. "Your better then I thought you'd be. Grandpa says that Puffs are pathetic weaklings."

MJ seethed angrily. "I'm the strongest of all the Puff's," she hissed, "and with the power my master has given me, I can kill you any time I want."

"Alright," Alice replied, "warm up's over then."

"Warm up?" muttered MJ and Edward in unison, as Alice gently put her feet shoulder's width apart, and started to charge.

* * *

For the benefit of those who have never watched/read Dragonball Z, here is a little bit about Saiyans. They are basically a very primitive species, tribal, warlike and fairly dim. They where however very good at being tribal and warlike, helped by being extremely strong. The average Saiyan was stronger then the average member of almost any other species in the galaxy, but they also had quiet predictable power levels. For centuries there appeared to be a set limit above which a Saiyan could not rise, which could be bettered by a member of almost any other species if they worked hard enough. This made them very popular mercenaries, since (like the Kryptonite Prince from earlier in this series) they wouldn't be powerful enough to take down the elite fighters, but would be able to deal with the chaff, without having to worry about massive amounts of expensive training.

However, about fifty years ago, some Saiyans with unnaturally high power levels emerged, and this worried people. For if they had no natural limit, with there higher base levels, how strong could they become? So concerned became the leader of the strongest faction at the time, Freeza (who we also met earlier) that he had their home planet destroyed, and all the Saiyans killed, expect from the three strongest, as they where too useful as servants. Vegeta, Alice's other grandfather, was one of them.

This piece of leaky thinking surprisingly didn't get what it deserved; when Vegeta found out the truth and rebelled, he was unable to defeat Freeza. Instead it was a supposed weakling that had slipped the net (being on earth at the time with no idea of his heritage) that killed Freeza. Goku had exceeded all his limits and become stronger then any Saiyan before him, but on the way he'd encountered a problem. Eventually he had reached a natural limit, a lot high then previously supposed, but still below Freeza's. Any more energy he gathered in this form was just wasted, since his body had reached a limit.

But… when grief focused his mind, Goku was able to perform an amazing transformation. His body changed, and he transcended to a Super Saiyan. Unlike Super Sonic, Super Saiyan is a controllable level, and not invincible. But it does provide the user with a massive boost in power, speed, strength and durability, turning the user into a near legendry fighter, with few equals in the universe. In achieving this transformation, Goku had unlocked a power that no other Saiyan had achieved for thousands of years. It was a truly impressive feat.

Then the writers got lazy, and suddenly everyone could do it. And Alice was no expectation…

* * *

Blossom's two children watched opened mouthed as Alice engulfed herself in a massive amount of power, a power they hadn't experienced since their Mum had fought the Prince of Krypton nearly five years ago. Her pupils turned bright green, her hair changed from purple to golden yellow and became spikier, and her body became a bit more muscular. Then it was done, and Alice relaxed, brimming with confidence.

"Ready for round two?" she offered. MJ gulped, but by the time she'd finished, Alice was behind her, and kneed the child hard in the back. MJ staggered forward, but whirled a fist in her aggressor's direction. The Super Saiyan caught it, and bent it round, causing MJ to shriek in pain, with an accompanying cracking sound. Alice looked slightly disappointed, this was going to be too easy.

* * *

Buttercup and Butch where dressing, slowly. Having your powers back took some getting used to, and they'd already destroyed a couple of sets of clothes.

"I'm just glad it came back in a safe way," Butch commented, "no explosions, no insanity, no returning evil ultimate Puffs…"

"So long as Bubbles hasn't been changed again," Buttercup noted. "Not that the bitch needs that much power to be evil." Butch said nothing to this, as he'd learnt not to, so Buttercup changed the subject. "Are you sure you don't know what SP took from your sock draw."

Butch looked up. "I said I didn't know, alright!" Buttercup was startled by this.

"Don't lie to me, what did she take?"

Butch said nothing for a while, he fiddled with the cuffs on his top instead. "Its not important, lets just get after the child okay, and quickly, chatting wastes time!" Buttercup looked at him intently, and then grabbed his trousers from the bed. "What the fuck!" Butch demanded.

"You know what SP grabbed from that draw," Buttercup replied angrily, "and it's worrying you. Come on I'm not an idiot. Tell me what it is!"

Butch sighed. "She took something I stole."

"What? When?"

"Years ago, just after Brick died. It was just something small and stupid that I kept."

"If you're in a hurry you'll stop messing around and answer the question. What was it?"

Butch shuddered slightly. "It was a necklace, with a symbol hanging from it."

"Which symbol?" Butch looked away. Then he told her. Buttercup blinked and chucked the trousers back hurriedly. "We better get a move on," she muttered.

* * *

MJ was being knocked from pillar to post by Alice, with almost effortless ease. All her attempted counter attacks where either too slow or easily rebuffed. It didn't help that her stronger arm was now broken, but from his observations, Edward supposed that it would have made limited difference even if it had been fine.

Once his sister had eaten tarmac for the fifth time, Alice landed gently infront of her and picked MJ up by the scruff of her neck. She looked in complete control of the situation. Fighting seemed to be effortless for her, and she seemed to enjoy it too. Edward sighed. Things seemed to have come along way. Days ago he was delighted not to have his powers and looking forward to his normal life, and today, not only had he used them for the first time, he was also clearly involved with a very strange girl. Life is full of surprises, he supposed.

Alice smiled victoriously at MJ. "You where pathetic," she said calmly. "What a waste of effort. The only thing I can take from this victory is foiling my Grandfather's plan. That'll please Mum at least."

"You've foiled nothing yet," MJ spat, but it was a pointless gesture. Alice calmly leant her head to one side and watched it fly past.

"Oh, I'm sorry, haven't I beaten you enough?" she asked and pulled her fist back to give MJ another good hammering.

"WAIT!" shouted Edward. Alice stopped.

"What?" she asked.

"Please, don't hurt her anymore." Edward pleaded. "I don't know what she's done and why she's working with your demonic ancestor, but she clearly can't beat you, so can't we just take her to your Mum and get her to undo this?"

Alice sighed. "I suppose so," she muttered. She let go of MJ, who fell to the floor, and scrambled away across the tarmac like a startled spider. Once she was a little way away, she stopped and stood up.

"I'm not done yet!" she wailed. "Let me show you a trick my Mum taught me!" An energy ball generated in both hands, and she lobed them both at Alice. The Super Saiyan batted them belatedly away, but MJ had got her distraction. She spun her self like round like a drill and tunnelled down through the ground, busting out of it again just behind Alice, and began to swing a web line at Alice.

She didn't finish it, because Alice muttered a few works under her breath and MJ's clothes where suddenly surrounded by back energy, imprisoning her. "I'd rather show you a trick my Mum taught me!" Alice said smugly. "Do you like it?"

MJ nodded. "Very much so," she said. Alice looked puzzled by this response, but by the time she'd worked it out, it was too late. The S shaped symbol on MJ's head flared up and MJ burst out of Alice's grip effortlessly, the flaming pink aurora returning. But worse, MJ's power now griped Alice too, sending her tumbling to her knees, screaming in agony.

Edward could only watch, as MJ, seemingly empowered, landed gracefully, laughing to her self. "I never thought it would be that easy," she cackled, as her hands where sounded by her own version of Raven's black energy, accompanied by more wailing from Alice, who was still linked to the Spider-puff by a stream of flaming pink energy. MJ calmly healed her broken arm with a twitch and then trust her hands forward and upwards, projecting the energy onto the sky. It began to swirl and a small porthole started to form. MJ relaxed, and the connection from her to Alice transferred to a connection between Alice and the tiny porthole, which slowly began to grow.

Edward found his voice. "What have you done MJ!" he stuttered.

MJ turned to him happily. "Oh good, I get to explain something to you for once! Once Alice used her demonic powers on me, I was able to use mine to take control of her energy and use it to start opening this porthole to Hell. Soon my master will be released, and all Mortals will be doomed!"

Edward glanced over to the incapacitated and groaning Alice, before turning back to MJ. "Please sis," he begged, "don't do this!"

MJ laughed like a cruel child. "The opportunity for begging past hours ago. Nothing can stop me now."

"Are you certain of that?" asked a new voice earnestly, "because if you are I'll go."

MJ turned round slowly. SP stood confidently behind her. She'd also dispensed of her mask, but like MJ was otherwise in costume. Her face held its usual innocence, and now MJ was even stronger then normal, she looked positively anorexic in comparison. MJ sneered.

"Who do you think you are Sandra Patricia?" she asked.

"Me?" SP replied, pointing to her chest as if she needed the visual aid. "I'm your shadow."

"Don't talk in riddles fool," MJ sniffed. "You better run while you still can."

"I'd listen to her," added a scared Edward. "Run, get your parents, or someone stronger!"

SP looked at him, blinked, and then turned back to MJ. "No," she said.

"Fine," MJ flexed her muscles impressively, "let me show you how weak you are you inferior copy!" she swung gently punch, that send SP flying effortlessly flying with depressing ease. The Black haired Spider-Puff ended up in a heap, and MJ landed next to her, crowing over the crying child. "That was a weaker punch," she chuckled. "You never stood a chan…"

The crying stopped and SP kicked her hard under the chin in an instant, hard enough to land MJ on her back. SP sat up, giggling like a maniac. "I knew that trick worked on everyone!" she said. MJ picked her self up, trying to remain calm.

"Ha ha, funny. But you must see you can't win!" she declared. "In our play fights at your house, I always won easily, and I'm now twice as good as I was!" She charged and unleashed a jumping kick at SP, only for her twin to seemingly disappear. MJ swung round, looking for her desperately, and then clicked. Looking up, she saw SP was standing on her head, completely unflustered. MJ swung a fist up there, which SP stepped over like a Irish Dancer, and kicked her in the back of the head, before pulling her self onto the side of a near by building. MJ looked at her in amazement, rubbing the back of her head, as crouched on her wall.

"What the hell?" the original Spider-Puff stuttered. "You've never moved that fast before!"

The clone smiled her innocent, honest smile. "But those were just play fights MJ," she explained, before her face creased with determination her mum would be proud of, "so I was holding back…"


	24. SP's fighting Spirit

**24. SP's Fighting Spirit**

What Blossom really wanted to do was to go home. She had a lot to sort out there; Brick, Edward and MJ all needed to be negotiated with over one crisis or another. It wasn't that she minded shooting small energy balls at sophisticated scientific equipment, it was just that now wasn't a good time.

Sonic's paranoia about Chaos Energy however meant there was no chance of her getting away anytime soon, so she fired another ki blast (as Gohan referred to them) aimlessly at the recorder. The aforementioned half Saiyan and her creator took a brief look at the reading.

"It's slightly down on her last readings," the Professor eventually declared, "that can be accounted for through lack of practise." He smiled at Blossom. "Looks like your back at normal strength, dear."

"Not above it?" asked Sonic in as close to a worried voice as he could manage. "I mean, should she be more then "slightly down" on previous readings."

"No," replied Gohan, glancing through the files, "this reading is about the same as the one we took the last time Blossom returned from a long break, so all seems well."

"Great," Blossom replied more cheerfully then she felt. "Can I go now? I have quite a lot to attend to."

"I suppose…" Sonic began, but he was interrupted by Cyclops (former leader of the X-men, and current leader of the evening's night duty crew) bursting through the flimsily plastic doors to the labs. He had such a panicked look on his face that only the Professor took time to mourn the Microscope that was knocked over in his dramatic entrance.

"It's happening early!" he declared, "the…" Then he saw Blossom, and stopped suddenly. "The, umm, thing."

Sonic looked at Cyclops in an unimpressed manor, then at Blossom, and then back at Cyclops. "You may speak freely Scot," he said calmly (doing his usual trick of calling heroes by their real names.)

Cyclops glanced at Blossom and Sonic nervously. He didn't seem to be sure if Sonic was telling the truth or just trying to be subtle. Eventually, he found a compromise. "Nightcrawler just reported that he's seen Trigon's portal being opened. As per your instructions I told him just to observe until a team could be assembled."

Blossom was amazed, but being a professional she said nothing. Her mind was already beginning to whirr however, filling in a few gaps in the story of Edward's and Alice's child.

Sonic however, merely nodded. "Cunning Devil, I should have known he'd find a short cut. Sound the alarm Cyclops, get everyone you can up and awake, and then construct a team as we agreed. Remember to leave some people as back up in case we need a second wave. Gohan, get the new force field generator to the seen pronto." He turned to Blossom. "Let's go scout it out."

* * *

Back in the city centre, the small portal was growing steadily in the sky, feeding itself off Alice as it did. This horrifying and spectacular event would normally be the centre of attention, but temporarily at least, two young girls where stealing the show.

As MJ attacked SP with all the viciousness you would expect from a demon, it quickly became apparent that she had a problem. Mainly that she couldn't hit her opponent. Every punch she through filled space that SP had been occupying, but her fellow spider-puff was never in it at the time. Usually she was a couple of inches to one side, getting ready to doge the other fist when it came in.

Eventually MJ had had enough of these fresh air shots, and swung her massive arm across her body in front of her, to try and fill SP's dogging space. The first arm was jumped by SP, but she ducked the second and tripped MJ up at the same time, causing her to endure a rather undignified landing on her hip.

SP jumped back a safe distance. "Oh dear, you'll have to be better then that MJ," she giggled. "You left your feet totally exposed."

MJ picked her self up, hatred written on her forehead. "You should be dust by now!" she roared, sparking with energy. "I'll vaporise you!" She extended her arm out rapidly, and unleashed a thick wave of pink energy that hurtled towards SP. The explosion it made as it crashed into the building behind was most impressive, but the fact that it had got that far meant that it had missed its intended target.

MJ spent slightly too long admiring the explosion, allowing SP to cast two web lines on to her, one from each hand. The green spider-puff then yanked hard back on them, and catapulted her self towards MJ, who only spotted her in time to get kicked under the chin, sending her flying away. SP still had the web lines attached however, so she was able to use the momentum MJ had now build up to swing her round and round over her head, before releasing her in the general direction of some buildings. MJ easily stopped herself once she'd got a bearing on her direction, but rather then foiling SP, this just made her a stationary target, for a well place punch in the small of the back.

MJ spun round, wincing in pain. "You!" she bellowed, and she swung another forwards punch. SP leant out the way once more, grabbed the passing arm tightly, and swung her self up and round on it, allowing the extra force of MJ pulling her own arm back to add force to her kick. This time, it was enough to send MJ crashing to the tarmac.

MJ and the watching Edward where amazed by this turn of events, but SP seemed fairly nonplussed. "Mum says I need to build up some more muscle," she said, to no one in particular, "but I'm not so sure. Any thoughts?"

Seething with rage, MJ was about to spit out another death threat and charge of into battle once more, but she suddenly checked herself. Thought. Now that might be the key. She looked once more over her new, enhanced body. It was so muscular and powerful that there was no way she should be losing to a runt like SP. The fact was however, that she was and getting annoyed about it wasn't going to help. She needed a plan.

Eventually, she stood up slowly, smiling. "Okay, how about round two," she declared. Her hand's glowed Pink with there massive power, causing SP to raise an eyebrow slightly in consideration. MJ smirked slightly, and then fired two energy balls at SP.

Sandra calmly side stepped them, before looking at Mary Jane sadly. "That's a shame," she said genuinely, "I thought you might have something better after such a long wait." MJ just smirked, and moved her hands around a bit. SP merely looked puzzled, waiting for the next attack.

"SP There guided!" Edward suddenly bellowed! The black haired girl spun around, and managed to throw herself downwards and below MJ's two energy balls just in time, although she hit the ground with a thud. MJ swung round furiously to Edward, who was by now at the side of Alice. "Don't help her, that's cheating!" she whined as if this was a game of hide and seek. She projected the energy balls at Edward instead. Her older brother winced, but SP landed a sharp punch on the back of the distracted MJ's neck, who staggered forward a step or two. More importantly, the loss in concentration caused the energy balls to fizzle out.

SP's attack had been rash by necessity, and this finally gave MJ an opening. SH grabbed her twin by the leg, whipped her into the air like a flailing rag, and slammed her into the tarmac. She swung her back into the air for a second attack, but the battered SP still had a trick up her selves, squirting her webbing onto MJ's eyes. The pink spider-puff was forced to let go to pull the webbing away, allowing SP to land a punch to MJ's ribs.

This achieved nothing. MJ glanced down gleefully at her opponent. "In answer to your earlier question, you do need more muscle," she laughed. "Fool!" she continued, hands on hips as SP pummelled her stomach, "you can't even hurt me unless you get to a vulnerable part.

SP stopped, and smiled. "True," she admitted, before grabbing MJ on the hips and swinging her self through her MJ's legs. She fired her webbing out behind her and it spiralled back through MJ's legs and onto a piece of tarmac, which was ripped out of the ground and into the air and towards and it spiralled back through MJ's legs and onto a piece of tarmac, which was ripped out of the ground and into the air and towards MJ's face. MJ growled and punched through this flying projectile, but the distraction allowed SP to unleash all her strength in a blow to the back of MJ's head, sending her into a crumpled heap on the floor.

"The problem is MJ," SP said honestly, "that I can always reach your weaker spots."

"No," muttered MJ, with out any real conviction. "No, you can't! I have too much power!"

"Maybe," agreed SP, "but you can't use it effectively."

"What?"

"It's quite simple really," Sp explained. "You probably have enough power to hold your own even against Alice here, but you waste too much of your energy with unnecessary movements. Add to that the amount of muscle your carrying around, and it means your movements are far too slow. You'd stand more of a chance of hitting me with your normal power."

MJ's lip wobbled. "But… but you'd never be able to beat me, you can't do enough damage."

SP sighed. "It's over MJ…" she began, but suddenly a huge booming voice interrupted her.

"I agree, it is over." MJ, SP and Edward looked up in shock at the now huge portal, and the four eyed demon looming out of it. Trigon had arrived.

* * *

Okay, sorry to stop there, but I've just been struck by writer's block. I know what's going to happen; it's just putting it on paper that's the hard bit. Anyway, I'll try to be back sooner next time, so thanks for reading. 


	25. In the Know

Ahem. Hello again, sorry for the spectacular delay to this story. There are a number of reasons for it. Firstly, writers block, secondly a brief illness, and thirdly a lack of confidence. To cut a long story short, I really am not enjoying writing this story as much as I have some of the previous ones which makes it very hard going at times. So an ideas where I'm going wrong, or words of support would be appreciated. Okay, I hope you enjoy it.

**25.**** In the Know**

An eerie chill emanated through the streets, seeming to oppress all human noise and life. The entire of existence was momentarily overridden by the gently whooshing of still open portal in the night's sky, and the sound of Trigon, King of the Demons, snorting into the air, as he surveyed the scene. Taller then even the largest skyscraper in the area, his powerful presence dominated the scene. Eventually, he spoke.

"I am back!" he hissed, quietly by his standards, but still plenty loud enough to hurry up any Superheroes that Cyclops was having trouble raising, as the sound echoed across the planet.

Edward stood in a mixture of fear and awe of this situation, finding himself taking an involuntary step back. A small part of him was conjecturing as to whether it might have been advisable to have taken action to try and prevent this, although he wasn't sure what he could have done. The rest of his mind however, was frozen by the impact of the moment.

His mind only clicked back into gear when the silence was broken suddenly by a sharp squeak from his sister.

"Master," MJ babbled, "I'm sorry, I have failed you…"

Trigon turned his massive head to allow his four glowing eyes to focus solely on his Spider-puff servant. "Nonsense," he scoffed. "You have done exactly what I required of you. The extra task you where trying to complete was for your self." He looked up slightly at SP. Buttercups child had also frozen, but not with awe, only with fear. Her knees were knocking together, her pupils shrunk and her mouth hanging open. Edward also thought that he could see a few tears.

Trigon studied her for a moment. "This task was also irrelevant," he said blandly, and with that a huge energy beam fired from his eyes.

Just as it had with Bubbles' attack long ago, SP's spider-sense was completely overloaded, and just as then, she made no attempted to doge. The calm, confident and talented warrior had vanished, to be replaced by a shrivelling, terrified child. SP only action was to flinch as the blast cannoned towards her. Edward made a dive forward, but was stopped halfway through the movement by someone grabbing his leg. So he could only watch as Sandra Patricia was smashed by the blast, the land around her vaporising in it wake.

When Trigon had finished, SP had almost been burnt to a crisp. Her scarred, motionless body heaped at the bottom of a disconcertingly large creator, with MJ near by dancing around in delight. "No more SP! I'm the only one again!"

Sickened by this display from his sister, Edward swung round to see who was holding his leg, only to find to his surprise that it was Alice. "What the Hell…" he began, but she quickly cut him off.

"That is Hell!" Alice bellowed, her eyes filled with an emotion he'd never seen in her before – genuine terror. "It can't be beaten, we must run!"

"Yes," said a new voice. "Run away Edward my dear, not that it will help you." Him was hovering around just behind him. "You and your entire planet is doomed, all because you didn't use contraception…"

The red ruff swung a furious punch at Him, but it was the floppy, awkward punch of someone that has never had to throw one before. Him easily dogged it, before drifting back upwards towards his master.

"Oh dear," he continued mockingly. "I fear that you may regret not learning to fight properly. Not that it will be your last regret once I'm done with…" Trigon coughed gently but firmly. Him stopped, slightly flustered. "Sorry master, once we're done with you!"

Edward really wished now he had done some superhero training now; at least then he'd be able to think of a witty come back. But instead he just stood there like an angry lemon, until Alice tugged on his shoulder fearfully. "Please let's go…" she began to plead, they where interrupted by a blue flash.

Sonic, with Blossom hanging on behind like Tails used to, screeched to a halt just in front of the scene. The two of them quickly assessed the situation. Blossom managed to just get away with a surprised and disappointed look when she saw MJ, but couldn't as well suppress the gasp of horror when she saw her niece.

"SP," she whispered, before making a move in that direction. Sonic grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"If she's dead you can't help her and if she's alive you won't be doing her any good by drawing her into the line of fire!" he hissed, with the experience and harshness of a veteran soldier. "Now stay here and follow my lead!"

From up above, Trigon – who was not in a great hurry today – studied the newcomers with an element of twisted amusement. "Tell me Him," he muttered commandingly. "Who is the blue spiky creature with that Puff?"

"Its Sonic," Him spat. Trigon nodded.

"Tell me hedgehog," he said smugly. "Why do you risk your life for a planet that isn't yours? Surely you want to go home to your friends."

Sonic, who'd been tipped off earlier about Trigon's mind reading capabilities, refused to be flustered by this. Instead, he looked straight into those terrible eyes, smiled slightly, and turned to MJ.

"It's always the daughter's isn't it?" he said in an over-the-top manner, waving his arms about to make his point. He turned to Blossom with a huge smile on his face, the bitter soldier of moments before gone, to be replaced by the natural exhibitionist. "I mean, what are us parents supposed to do with them eh? They take all your money, never listen to your advice, and then marry some awful, stupid bandicoot." He said the last bit with rather too much feeling.

Trigon was feeling a lot too. As the might king of the demons, he wasn't used to being ignored. "Answer me when I speak to you rodent!" he bellowed with hell-born furry.

"Do you mind," snapped Sonic, "we're having a conversation over here." He nudged Blossom in the ribs, and she stopped gaping and sprung into life.

"Why MJ?" she asked sadly. MJ didn't look bothered by this appeal.

"I did it because I needed to be free!" she replied aggressively. "Free of those human emotions that I couldn't satisfy, free to be the monster I am!"

"Oh I see," interrupted Sonic, "you did it for attention."

"WHAT!" stuttered Edward and Blossom together. MJ twitched embarrassedly.

"That's not true!" she argued, but she didn't seem totally convinced.

Blossom was now pissed. "For Fuck's sake MJ!" she stormed, "can't I leave you alone for one week without you going crazy and trying to kill us all! You've unleashed this terrible planet destroying monster on us all just because you felt ignored! Couldn't you see that the problem we had with Edward had to take priority, just for a little while?"

"I don't think so," Him spoke for MJ, who was busy starring at her feet. "Not since she was being eaten alive by the guilt of killing someone." He paused for a moment, to take in Blossom's and Edward's faces, both of which had drained of colour. "And you two didn't even know."

From up above, Trigon chortled evilly "It's a good job that I find this so amusing," he cackled, "otherwise I would have vaporised the lot of you by now." He turned to Him. "It appears that I have underestimated the cruelty of your genius, congratulations."

If Him could have blushed he would of. "It was nothing sir," he said modestly.

"It was sick, and I've had enough of it," snapped a new voice. The crowd looked round to behind Sonic and Blossom, where Brick had just arrived. "MJ, get down here now!"

The Spider-puff looked up again. "NO!" she hissed. "You're not my real Dad!"

"Maybe, but I am!" Eddy stepped out from behind Brick. His tone of voice and expression were firm and commanding like and angry father should be, but his knees where knocking together so fast, that the fat on his stomach rippled like an ocean.

MJ hesitated. "I…" she managed, before glancing around aimlessly, looking for guidance.

Blossom, however, took a step towards Eddy, turning her back to the enemy in the process. "What are you doing here?" she asked worriedly.

"Oh, Brick came round to my house because he'd lost my daughter and was wondering if she was with me, and then we saw this on the news," he explained. Brick nodded to confirm the story.

"You shouldn't be here, it's not safe…" Blossom began.

"Obviously," boomed Trigon viscously for behind. He raised a finger and fired a beam. It was much narrower then the one used to take out SP, more like a laser then an energy wave. Sonic moved like a whirlwind, but he wasn't quite quick enough. Sure, he managed to bundle Blossom out of its path, but the laser still surged through his own hand and Eddy's shoulder, although it would have got his heart otherwise.

Trigon smiled. "I warned you not to bore me," he said.

Sonic rolled off Blossom, blood pouring from the wound in his hand. The pink Puff however ignored Sonic's earlier advice and scrambled straight over to Eddy. The trauma of the attack had rendered him unconscious, and his breathing was slowing as the massive wound settled. Blossom jerkily managed to blow some ice over it, sealing the damage, as Edward – who'd got there a few seconds latter – checked for a swallowed tongue, his own face pale with horror.

Brick swooped in to put an arm around Blossom, trying to calm her down. "It's okay," he whispered gently, "it's going to be okay." But Blossom couldn't disagree more. It was her own fault, wasn't it? Surely, Brick returning had been the greatest event of her life, but it had lead to her a bad mother on two counts, a bad wife for abandoning Eddy, and a bad superhero, of not questioning earlier how Brick had escaped. The end result was the mess in front of her, and it was all down to… the two demons standing behind her. Him cackling like a lunatic at her pain, and Trigon emitting endless self-satisfaction. It was they who had taken advantage of her brief loss of control, and turned it into this terror. Blossom was crying now, but they weren't tears of sadness, they were of anger. It couldn't possibly hurt to lose control just once more, could it? Anyway, it was too late now.

Sonic and Edward were already taking a few steps back, when Blossom turned to Brick, seeming quite calm about things. "Brick," she said, in a toneless voice. "What ever happens from now, I love you okay?"

Brick looked puzzled. "What does that mean?" he asked, but he never found out, because in a flash of yellow Blossom had elbowed him in the ribs and propelled him through the nearest heap of rubble from a destroyed building. Then she stood up, her eyes burning bright red, and her hair a glowing, fizzling yellow. She swung round and stared straight up at Trigon.

The demon sneered. "You going to entertain me Blossom?" he asked.

"I'm not Blossom," she replied defiantly, energy sparking off her, "and I'm going to destroy you!" She blasted upwards, propelled by that (depressingly) familiar feeling of uncontrollable endless rage, and in a flash landed a firm punch on Trigon's enormous chin. The demon's head rocked backwards and for a moment, Blossom's rage was eased at the thought of causing the oaf an element of pain.

It was a short lived feeling, because Trigon rocked his head straight back forward again, smashing Super Blossom straight back down from whence she came. The tarmac gave way once more on impact, creating a large creator.

As the dust rose from the impact, MJ found her voice. "What did you attack my Dad for!" she shouted at Trigon. "He wasn't a threat… and he hadn't done anything against me!"

"Don't question my motives," replied Trigon curtly. "All mortal life will perish, and as a demon, you will welcome that." The S shaped mark on MJ's head glowed vigorously, and the anger faded from her face and her eyes glazed over.

"As you command Master," she said tonelessly.

"If I may suggest master," Him piped up, "would it not be best for her to wait in Hell until all emotional distractions have been eliminated?" Trigon nodded slowly.

"Good thought. MJ, return to Hell and wait for further instructions."

"Yes Master," MJ nodded obediently, and with out a backward look she flew through the porthole and out of sight.

Blossom crawled slowly out the creator, her rage and the extra power it brought gone in a flash. With Brick still picking himself up from his impact, Edward trying to help Eddy and Sonic now keeping his distance, she forced her self on to her shaking, battered hands and knees alone.

"Shit he's strong," she muttered, but before she could come up with another course of action, she felt the presence of her sister's energy.

"He can't be that strong," Bubbles said cheerfully, as she landed gently on her right hand side. She was wearing suit-trousers and a blouse, so had probably come straight from a campaign meeting.

"You just haven't trained for four years," Buttercup added from her left hand side. The two of them grabbed an arm each and pulled Blossom back on to there feet, which was quiet an achievement of coordination, since neither was even willing to look at the other.

Meanwhile, Butch, who had arrived with Buttercup, had made a beeline straight for SP's battered body. As Blossom watched, the first though that came into her mind was that Sonic wasn't bothering with the lecture he'd given her earlier. Butch studied his daughter with fear in his eyes, as Buttercup watched in a furious silence.

"Admiring our handy work I see," interjected Him, who obviously felt the need to gloat. "Don't sweat son, you'll soon be joining her."

Butch said nothing. He simply reached down to SP's neck, and pulled the chain necklace she had taken earlier off. On it, was a simply, sliver cross. Butch wrapped it gently round his own neck in silence, leaving the talking to his wife.

"Stay out of this Bubbles," she muttered with undisguised hatred. "This is our fight, and besides, Republicans only start battles; they don't fight in them." With that she and Butch rocketed off towards Trigon, launching an attack that reminded Blossom of the old days of giant monsters, long ago. To her surprise, they were far more affective then she had been; Buttercup even managed to seemingly bruise Trigon with a blow to the chest. The demonic king was unflustered however, and as soon as he became bored of attack it took a mere flick of his wrist to send the two of them hurtling towards the ground.

They never got there because Bubbles swooped in and caught them both, one in each arm. "You've been listening to far too much Democrat propaganda sis," she said in a sweet voice that was bound to get Buttercup angry. Choosing not to wait for a reply, Bubbles fired an eye blast at Trigon, who effortlessly batted it away, before replying with his own attack. The three heroes split, all of them narrowly avoiding vaporisation.

Sonic had scene enough. "Alright!" he shouted commandingly, "get down here now! It's time for a bit of tactics."

"Ha!" laughed Trigon, as the heroes (and the recovered Brick) formed up around Blossom and Sonic, "tactics are futile and pointless against me. I was going to wait for my beloved daughter to show up before I obliterated you, but if you going to be that predictable… " He fired a large blast towards the crowd, cackling with joy as he did. His excitement was short lived, as a back shape emerged from the ground in front of his targets, and blasted the beam straight back, with such ferocity that it landed him on his back. Him gasped and looked in fear at the figure that had just emerged.

"You should have known that I'd be waiting for you to do something that arrogant before revealing my presence Dad." Raven spoke with a soft confidence.

"Yeah, nice cool entrance, but do you mind cutting it a little less fine next time," Sonic snapped from behind her. Raven glanced round at Sonic, and at the wound in his hand.

"Pain making you touchy?" she asked.

"What this? Mere flesh wound, barely noticed it," lied Sonic.

"No, that looks really painful," said Beast Boy, who'd materialised seemingly from a fly moments before, "you should go see a doctor." He swung away before Sonic could bawl him out, but the Hedgehog was distracted anyway, by the arrival of Cyclops' assembled team.

It was a good bunch, Sonic thought. Other then the man himself, Cyclops had brought Jean Grey, Wolverine, Iceman and Colossus from his own X-men, all five former Titans (as they had lots of previous experience), Wonder Women, The Flash and the Green Lantern (for there functional abilities,) and Boomer, Goku, Vegeta, Trunks (who annoyed Best Boy by positioning himself next to Raven, much to Sonic's pleasure) Krillin, Piccolo and Gohan who as required had brought a fair amount of equipment with him. Of course they could have deployed more Heroes, but Sonic had made it clear that he wanted only those best suited to this task: in the upcoming battle, time could not be wasted looking after those who were not suited to this kind of fight.

With him and the Puffs included, Sonic seemed to have achieved his objective. There was just one or two modifications to be made. "Civilians, take the wounded man away and stand back."

Edward moved immediately, but there was a pause before Brick – who was busy trying to find out from a reluctant Blossom why she's attack him a moment ago – realised he was being spoken to too. "What me?" he spluttered.

"Yes of course you," interjected Wonder Women bitterly. "You're not a member of the SSR, thank god."

"What's that supposed to mean," asked Blossom coldly, although she knew full well.

"It means we only have people that we can trust," Wonder Women replied, "so come to think of it, quite why you're here is a…"

"THANK YOU!" Sonic shouted firmly. Trigon was beginning to regain his footing and they still weren't ready yet. "Brick, Edward, now, if you please." As Brick reluctantly when to pick up Eddy, Sonic turned over his other shoulder, to look at the half Saiyan Alice, who was still cowering some distance away. "You, get over here," he barked.

Alice, clearly still rattled, shook her head. "N..n..no," she stuttered.

"Gee," murmured a voice from with in the crowd, "I've never known Vegeta to train a coward." This did the trick. Enough of Alice's confidence (or at least anger) returned for her to stand shakily up and make her way over. Sonic sighed. This wasn't ideal for her or them, he though, but they might just need her.

"Good girl," he said encouragingly, before suddenly whipping his head round. "Leave her!" he bellowed. Edward, who had made a move to SP's wounded body, retreated rapidly. Sonic nodded. "Okay Gohan, turn it on now."

Behind them Brick had just placed Eddy's body on the ground. Edward zipped over to him. "Err, shouldn't we get him to a hospital?" Edward asked desperately.

"You can do that," snapped Brick, "but if Sonic thinks I'm abandoning Blossom he'd got another thing coming!" He flew back towards the battle group, and straight into a yellow force field. "What the hell!" Brick stormed, as he thumped it angrily with his fists, "why on earth did he do that?"

Inside, Trigon was of much the same opinion. "What is this?" he muttered furiously. Sonic laughed.

"Well horn head," he scoffed, "this is a force field powered of Saiyan energy made by that machine over there. As long as my Saiyan friends are on there feet, we have you trapped right where we want you!"

"That's impossible," Him bleated, "how could you have prepared for this so quickly! You only could have known that Trigon was planning an escape a few hours ago when Brick admitted what he'd done to Blossom!"

"Yes, I was wondering that," muttered Raven. Sonic smirked.

"Ha. We had a tip off from the Hell police force after they raided your house. I knew exactly what you where going to try. Where do you think Alice got the correct pregnancy test for Puffs from? I planted it for her."

"Those secret meetings," Blossom muttered in astonishment. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Frankly, I thought you'd blow it," Sonic replied, "and you too Raven. It had to be done this way, I mean if you know an enemies' attack plan, you don't stop the plan. You lay a trap instead."

"Besides," muttered Jean Grey darkly, "you can hardly complain about Sonic keeping secrets, can you Blossom."

"We'll discuss this latter," Blossom spat, as Raven nodded in agreement.

It was at this point that Trigon lost his temper. "There will be no later!" he bellowed. "So you've got me trapped in here for a while, what's that going to achieve! Those Saiyans will tier eventually…"

"Want to bet!" Goku called out.

"I bet on your life!" the demon stormed. "Besides, even if you can shove me back into Hell, MJ's the only one who can close the portal. I can return when ever I like!"

"Maybe," put in Boomer, as he hadn't spoken yet this chapter, "but there's twenty-six of us, and only one of you, we'll grid you down."

Trigon laughed. "Now," he said calmly, his temper cooling momentarily, "this time, do you want to bet?" He waved his arm, and suddenly, an army of demon's surged out of the portal, charging at the assembled heroes, grinning like maniacs.

There was just about enough time for a collective intake of breath and then, there was just the chaos of battle.


	26. The Gates of Hell

Before we begin I'd just like to thank SithKnightGalen and FastxTalkingxDolphin for having the courage to help me last chapter. Thank you both.

**26. The Gates of Hell**

The army of demon's flooded in so quickly that the battle field soon became a blur. From Brick's position at least, all the heroes appeared to be immediately engulfed by the surge of opponents. At the far end of the battle field, Trigon barked his orders – "Slaughter them all!" – before taking a seat in front of the portal, just in case anyone thought of making a bid to retrieve MJ. All this mattered little to Brick at this precise moment.

"The Bastard locked me out!" he bawled, thumping the force field furiously. "Why would he do that!"

Edward, who was trying to scoop up Eddy, looked up briefly. "Perhaps he doesn't trust you," he said bluntly.

"He's let Bubbles in!" Brick seethed angrily. "I've never tried to destroy the world."

"But you might have succeeded," Edward muttered darkly, before speaking up again. "Perhaps he wants you as a reserve then."

Brick hadn't taking his eyes off the battle field. "Then he's a fool, they clearly need me now. I can beat these guys! Look, they're getting pummelled!"

"Listen, could we give Dad, I mean Eddy a hand first?"

Brick swung round angrily. "No, you listen, everyone I care about is inside that force field, and they need my help, so either leave the idiot to die and give me a hand or take him to the hospital, I don't care!" There was an awkward pause.

"Everyone?" Edward asked quietly. Brick suddenly realised what he said.

"Ah, I didn't mean…"

"Yes you did." Edward's voice held a coldness that Brick hadn't heard for a while. "I'll run this "idiot" to hospital then, you've obviously got a lot of sulking to do."

Brick knew he should have followed him, but he didn't. Blossom was far more important to him then that little brat, and besides, if Eddy did drop dead, it would do him a favour, since he almost certainly hadn't changed his will yet.

In the corner of his ear however, he heard a small voice he hadn't heard for a while, which spoke with an Austrian ascent. "You imbecile," it said. "You said you where good at this sort of thing."

Brick glanced over his shoulder. He couldn't see anything, but he didn't need to. "Oh what do you know Roland," he snorted, before returning his attention to the battle.

* * *

Inside the glowing force field, the noise of the battle was tremendous. This was mainly due to the constantly shrieking demons, which liked to make sure that their prey was facing them, so they could take in the look of fear. The constant high-pitched wails could be extremely disorientating, causing even the most experienced fighter to occasionally lose track of there position. This was made doubly hard by the need to keep moving, least the seated Trigon decided to take a very deadly pot-shot.

Thus, the important thing was to stay focused, something that Bubbles was finding difficult. True, it was very distracting having your powers back for the first time in four years and being within speaking distance of a sister that had ignored you for the same period, but as always, there was something else too. What she needed was a moment to gather her thoughts, something that was proving difficult to find while a winged monster was swing a flaming axe at her head.

Eventually, Bubbles managed to catch the creature arcing it's attack too much, and grab the handle of it's weapon. Ripping it from its grasp, she then kicked it away, before hurling the axe after it. The results of this were quite messy, but achieved the twin objectives of disposing of her opponent and giving her the space to think.

"Okay Bubbles," she muttered under her breath, tapping her self on the stomach as she did. "Focus fool, focus!"

A cold chill ran down her spine, and for a moment she allowed her self the luxury of closing her eyes. When she opened them once more, the world seemed to have slowed down to a crawl. A strange calm filled the air, originating from the far more pleasant sound of very slow shrieks. Bubbles glanced slowly over the battle field, analysing it as if it were a painting.

The first thing that was obvious was that from the heroes' point of view, it was going rather well. There was a good splattering of demonic bodies on the floor, while most of the heroes, although cut and bruised, were still on their feet. Of course there were still far more demons then heroes, but Bubbles discarded that fact for now.

Up in the sky above, the battle that raged in three dimensions had a certain elegance to it, at least in slow motion. Most of the flying superheroes had blasting powers, allowing them to glide through a graceful dance of weaving and vaporising. Bubbles could see the Saiyans, Starfire, Raven and her beloved Boomer dice with death in an eerily clean and swift manner. The graveness of the situation would be lost on most viewers, if it wasn't for the expressions on the faces of the fighters, and the horrific appearance of the demons.

Down below, the battle was a lot more brutal. The Green Lantern had put a barrier over the heads of these heroes to restrict the angles of attack available to the monstrous enemy, and it was working well. Wonder Woman and the Flash where racking up a large heap of kills with assistance from the remaining Titians, but with Wolverine also hacking away under the cover of Cyclops, it was clear that they too were (politically correctly) all but level. The hand-to-hand nature of the fighting on the ground made it seem a lot more like the desperate struggle for survival this battle actually was.

Others were somewhat more free flowing: Sonic was cannoning off anything in sight, Jean Grey was using her powers to disrupt whatever she could, and poor Blossom just drifted around, trying to stay alive, and glancing forlornly at Trigon, hoping for him to move to that she could go after her daughter.

She seemed to be getting away with this distracted behaviour; in fact Bubbles quickly deduced that the Puff's weren't being targeted very hard by the demons; probably because Him didn't want they spoilt. She shuddered briefly at that thought, before her eyes tracked the last two heroes.

Buttercup and Butch, standing back-to-back over the body of there mangled daughter, were fighting a desperate defence. They were determined not to move from there last stand, as that would let there daughter be finally finished off. Not that she had long anyway, Bubbles thought.

She looked at the pain on her sister's face, and sighed. Then she heard the voice again._ She hates you,_ it said_, and do you know why?_

"Go, away!" Bubbles muttered.

_Because she knows what you truly are. She is it too, and she hates it, almost as much as you try too. _

"You aren't me!" Bubbles muttered. Time was accelerating again, as her calmness reseeded.

_You can deny it all you want Bubbles, but we are the same being, and you like it. If you were to use you true self, you could fix…_

"I said go away!" Bubbles yelled. The world returned to normal speed, and Bubbles was faced with a demon charging straight at her. She flinched, but there was no contact, since Boomer took the monster in the flank with a powerful blast.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she smiled weakly. "I've just got something to do." She barrelled down towards her sister and brother-in-law, who seemed to be trying to distract themselves from certain death through conversation.

"I still don't get why she took the cross," Buttercup steamed.

"I suspect she though it would protect her," Butch replied.

"Why would she think that?"

Bubbles landed beside, and blasted a demon quickly away before interrupting. "Because its what her Daddy thought, right Butch?"

Butch squirmed slightly, but Buttercup was too annoyed to notice. "What do you want," she spat.

"I'm here to help."

"I don't want your help," Buttercup bellowed. Bubbles sighed.

"Listen Butters," she said in a slightly hurt voice, "I know that you hate me, and I know why. I know you don't see me as you sister anymore. You just see me as a disease that has infected her body."

Buttercup paused. "How…"

"You're not the only one with nightmares," Bubbles explained.

"Nightmares?" Butch asked, as he whacked another demon away. "You never told me!"

"We're allowed some secrets aren't we," Buttercup mumbled.

"Before you answer complain Butch," Bubbles interjected, "you might like to mention your Christian faith."

"You what?" Buttercup stammered.

"Oh come on Bubbles," Butch scorned, "I'm hardly a proper one. Besides, I would have said when I was ready."

"I thought those trips to the supermarket on Sundays were taking a while," Buttercup snapped.

"I was only praying for a baby," Butch continued to defend himself as if he'd been caught with a mistress.

"Sure, whatever lets you sleep at night," Bubbles laughed, "but the fact wasn't lost on SP." She bent down to the child, who was a complete wreck. Heavily burnt and missing layers of flesh in some places.

"Fat lot of good it did her though," Buttercup sniffed. "Maybe if she hadn't thought that stupid thing would protect her she wouldn't have come."

"Nope, she would have," Bubbles said calmly. "I know you sis, you trained her too well. And besides, it did protect her."

"Errm, what?" Butch stuttered.

"SP believed she wouldn't die from Trigon's blast because of the cross, and she didn't."

"That's rubbish," Buttercup hissed.

"Maybe," Bubbles smiled, her hand glowing blue, "but it might make more sense when I tell you that I believe I can heel her." With that she gently put her hand on Sandra Patricia's chest, and knew there was no going back. Her path was now set, and she'd need to act fast.

* * *

"Blossom, can you hear me?" Blossom jumped.

"Sonic, where are you?"

"I'm in your head," Sonic replied calmly.

"What?"

"I mean we're talking telepathically. Trigon has exceptional hearing and can read minds, but if Jean Grey carries the messages and Raven is trying to protect them from Trigon, so hopefully we can now talk in private."

"Private?"

"Yes. Except almost everyone else is listening too."

"Hi," interrupted Beast Boy's voice cheerfully, to prove the point.

"Oh, alright," Blossom paused. "Why?"

"We need a plan to get you into Hell so you can convince MJ to close the porthole," Sonic explained.

"Why," interrupted Raven, "don't you have one? I thought the reason you didn't tell me and Blossom about this attack was so you could set some sort of full proof plan to beat him…"

"Now is really not the time for this," interrupted Cyclops, "we need to stay focused."

"Yeah," agreed the Flash, "it would be much better to discuss why we're helping Blossom to rescue the kid who let all these monsters out!"

"There won't be any rescuing involved," Piccolo said calmly, "will there Raven."

There was a pause, and Blossom felt her heart miss a beat. "Probably not. If MJ does reverse the portal, it will need to suck everything that got out back in before it closes. The sucking force won't affect us, but it will drag Trigon and all his minions back in. But it should also prevent anything but the immensely strong getting out. Theoretically it's possible, but I don't think for you Blossom. You'll be trapped in Hell with your daughter forever."

Another brief pause followed. Blossom could see from her position on the battle field that her sisters where occupied, so hopefully they hadn't heard this.

"So you'll be going forever," Boomer said nervously. Of course he wasn't so occupied.

"Possibly." Blossom was lost in deep thought.

"We'll probably be able to find another way out for you later," Goku piped in cheerfully, "so long as you survive down there."

"Probably?" queried Boomer worriedly, but Blossom had come to a decision.

"Alright," she said calmly, "I know what my duty is."

"Of course," Sonic took control again. "Now, I know most of you will be so very keen to get rid of Blossom, so I'm sure you'll all give this your best shot." Blossom could almost hear in her head the sound of slightly guilt Superheroes looking at there feet, as Sonic continued. "Right, the rest of the Puffs appear to be back with us, so here's the plan…"

* * *

Trigon had silently ordered his demons to slow down their assault. There was little fun for him in just seeing his enemies simply slaughtered before they knew what had hit them. He wanted them to realise the impossibility of their situation first. It may take a while, but Trigon had time.

However, he didn't think that he'd told them to back off so much that it would allow one of them to approach him directly. Still, he saw the Green Ruff – whatever his unimportant name was – flying straight up towards him. Trigon allowed himself a smile however; he could have a bit of fun.

Butch stopped just in front of him. "I've brought something that can hurt you," he sneered. Trigon, quickly read his mind, and laughed.

"I wouldn't have thought of you as the religious type, fool," he chuckled.

Butch tipped his head to one side. "Well my brother Brick once gave me a pamphlet on the afterlife called "So you're dead," and after that I decided to hedge my bets a bit.

"And now you believe that the Bible you're hiding behind your back can hurt me."

"Yep," replied Butch, with no fear at all.

"What on earth makes you think that?"

Butch smiled. "Because it's very heavy," he said. With one smooth movement he whipped the book out from behind him and spun it towards Trigon. It hit him straight in the eye, causing the Demon to flinch for a moment.

"OW! The corner!" he bellowed. "You'll pay for…"

"… what you did to my sister!" The recovered SP finished his sentence for him before plunging her teeth into Trigon's back, having slipped behind him under Raven's cover. This instance of pain caused Trigon to rise ever to slightly, and that was the break they needed. Every hero with a wave power unleashed it onto Trigon from below, forcing him upwards, while the other tried to protect them. Slowly but surely, the combined might of them all revealed a smidgen of the porthole.

All except Sonic and Blossom of course, for the former was running along the ground very fast towards the newly opened gap, while the latter was desperately trying to hold on. "Ready!" called Sonic, but Blossom could barely get to "Ye…" before Sonic screeched to a halt, and let go. Blossom was sent careering under Trigon and through the portal behind. The noise and chaos of the battlefield disappeared in an instant, and starring her in the face now, was the incalculable horror of Hell.

* * *

The condemned members of the Hell Police Department, Cell and Freeza, where very busy. This shouldn't have surprised them, as they were currently in the weekly "Demon Oppression Hour," one of their busiest times. However this week the task was proving quiet a challenge.

Freeza leapt from rock to rock, waving his night stick menacingly. "Come out, come out where ever you are, you pure evil freaks! Dam it! If we don't produce video evidence of us brutally beating twenty demons for no reason, Pikon will be furious… well, more furious then normal."

"And of course he's going to be thrilled when he finds out that we didn't alert him of an escape until an hour after we found it," Cell grumbled, as he slouched along behind, not looking at all.

"They haven't escaped," Freeza declared with the confidence that only comes from years of spineless servants endlessly agreeing with you, "They're just so afraid of me that they are hiding somewhere."

"As if anyone could be afraid of you," mutter Cell. "Look around you Freeza, there is no one here and a massive porthole over head. Could the two events possibly be linked?"

"No," replied Freeza, who'd lost all interest in the porthole once he'd worked out that he couldn't get up to it. "You're just paranoid."

"Says the man that committed galactic genocide on the back of a rumour," Cell countered.

"Hey, the rumour turned out to be true!" Freeza spat. "There…" but as he looked around the next rock, he stopped. "Found one!" he roared triumphantly.

MJ had been busy trying to focus on the battle above, so she had no time to react. Freeza grabbed her around the neck and produced her to Cell like a trophy. The android was less then impressed.

"It's a very small Demon," he scoffed. "Probably so weak that they left it behind."

"I'm not a demon!" MJ hissed.

"See it's not even a demon," Cell said quickly. "Why don't we just inform Pikon and go to bed."

Freeza normally would be up for running off and having a few extra hours kip, but he'd spent a week's wages on a new nightstick and was keen to try it out. "You are a demon," he said angrily to MJ, "you've got the mark on your forehead. Let's beat her!"

MJ watch Freeza, raise his hand aggressively, and then she resolved to bite him hard in the wrist. The former Emperor yelped in pain, and let go, allowing MJ to make a break for it.

"Right, that's it," Freeza bellowed, clutching his hand. "Once I've got you, you won't know what pain, err… where am I going with this Cell?"

Cell ignored this and strolled confidently over to where MJ had fled to. The Spider-puff had her back to a flaming pit, fist clenched, ready to do battle. Cell studied her closely, as a curiosity.

"She doesn't look like a demon," he muttered.

"Really, have you seen what it did to my wrist!"

"No," Cell continued, "it looks more like that guy who escaped from us a few weeks ago, the one that kicked Goku and Pikon in the crotch."

"Oh yes," Freeza murmured, recalling the happy scene. Then he snapped back to reality. "Maybe this is his daughter or something."

"How can it be?" Cell scoffed, "as you say, she's a demon."

"Well maybe that girl he kept on talking about was a demon. People do it you know, I read about it all the time in the newspapers."

"Only the newspapers you buy," replied Cell proudly, as a death long subscriber to the Daily Telegraph. "Besides, if her mother was a demon, she'd be here, right?"

There was a convenient thud behind them that could only say "Welcome to Hell." Cell and Freeza turned round slowly, (checking on MJ to avoid her getting the jump on them,) to see Blossom picking herself out of the red, grainy dust. The cogs in the brains of the Police officers were whirring very fast now, but just in case they couldn't make all the connections, MJ helped them by involuntarily calling out, "Mum!"

Blossom looked over towards her Daughter, and then up into the eyes of the smug Freeza.

"Well lookey here," he sneered.


	27. Superman Returns

Before we start, as a certified Rally nut, I'd like to briefly pay tribute to Colin McRae, who along with his five year old son and two friends died three weeks ago. It is a tragedy for both the families and the sport, and all involved will be missed.

**27. Superman Returns**

"Lookey here!" Cell sniffed incredulously. "We're not in London you know! And if we where, talking like that would probably get you shot."

As Freeza turned to retort, Blossom wondered what her next move should be. She recognised Cell and Freeza from previous case reports that she'd read up on when she'd first joined the SSR years ago. Brick had said that he'd beaten them when escaping from Hell, a fact that at the time she hadn't questioned, but that she severely doubted now.

So as Freeza ranted on about the importance of wiping your feet before entering a house (quite how he'd got there Blossom didn't know,) she made a decision. All she needed was to talk to MJ, so why bother with these two. Waiting until the two "officers" seemed fully distracted by their argument, Blossom made a swift, low movement around to the other side of them, to where MJ was watching.

"MJ," she whispered quickly. "Come on, lets get out of here, before they snap out of it."

MJ looked at her blankly. "Why are you here?" she asked calmly, in her deformed demonic voice. "To rescue me or to save the world?"

Blossom didn't think. "Both," she replied instinctively.

MJ's face twisted in a moment, and her leg moved so fast that by the time Blossom had realised she was attacking, she'd already been propelled by the kick into the back of Cell. She ended up in a heap on the floor, while Cell bit his tongue.

If Freeza though this was funny, (and there was very little "if" about it,) then Cell did not. "Who on Hell did that," he growled, turning round slowly.

Blossom stuttered. "I…" but she was interrupted by a demonic roar.

"LIAR!" MJ bellowed with all her might, the ground shaking beneath her feet, and the flaming pink aura seemingly stretching to the murky grey sky. "You know fully well that once you've got me to reverse that portal then there is no way out for either of us! You've done nothing but lie to me my entire life, and now you're going to pay for it!"

Blossom staggered to her feet, using the surprised Cell as a hand hold. "What, you're going to get revenge on me by destroying the entire world!"

"Nope," replied MJ, in a brief flash of childishness, as she hopped from one foot to the other. "That was the price of me loosing my guilt. My revenge on you will be your death."

"What?" mumbled Blossom weakly.

"They say the second murder is easier," MJ mused, rolling her ankle and looking at her feet.

"It is," replied Freeza, nostalgically "I remember my second, it was my great Uncle Bag. Death beamed him in the back during a speech in the senate. Think it was for political reasons, or maybe because he'd dinked my space ship, I forget."

"Yeah," muttered MJ, "Well mine will be by ripping the jugular out with my teeth!" She leapt at Blossom in a high, looping arc.

There was no time for subtlety. MJ had never learnt to fight properly, and Blossom saw that same opening that she'd seen the last time MJ had been insane (back in a Tangled Web.) Then there had been hesitation, but this time there was none. Blossom took half a step to the right as MJ drew near, and stuck out her left arm to catch MJ by the neck. She rocked her head out of the way of MJ's flailing punch, and hit her hard below the ribs with her right arm, then kicked her winded daughter in the groin with her left leg before scissor kicking her in the back with the right. Then she dropped the battered MJ to the floor, and put her foot firmly on MJ's back.

"Right kid," she declared. "We are going to have a meaningful discussion about your problems, and it will end with you closing that porthole even if it takes the rest of eternity!"

MJ whimpered quietly. "How… how can you beat me?" she hissed, her emotional strength drained. "I always thought I…" and Blossom heard a faint crying. She didn't relax the pressure on MJ's back though.

"Don't even pretend to be my innocent little daughter you monster!" she said with surprising conviction. "You have destroyed her, and if you don't give her back to me right now, then I'll destroy you!"

"Aw, how sweet," mocked Cell.

"What's it to you?" Blossom spoke with a lot more bravery then she felt.

"Seeing as though you've just threatened to kill someone on my patch, quite a lot," Cell remarked.

Blossom shivered. "Listen; if I can't convince this little rat (MJ whimpered again) to close that porthole then everyone in the Universe will be killed!"

"Yawn," Freeza stretched to emphasis the point. "She's resisting arrest, and this one's mine!"

"Oh I don't see why not," Cell replied. He shoved Blossom in the back, sending her staggering off MJ and forward into space. "You fight Blossom Freeza, while I keep a foot on the demon kid, but once Brick arrives to rescue her he's all mine, agreed."

"Agreed," Freeza smiled, strolling towards Blossom confidently. "This one looks more fun anyway."

* * *

Back on earth, Trigon had taken the recent developments with predictable good grace. "I'll kill you all!" he roared manically, as he stomped over the battlefield, thrashing at the ground and occasionally at the force field too, in the vain hope that it might collapse.

Sonic had been in these life or death climatic battles before, and in a way he relished them. Especially when they took on the rather stereotypical form that this one had, i.e. overwhelming force of evil that can be stopped by one brave man (or in this case woman,) if the forces of good can just survive for long enough. It was his sort of scene.

The terrorising tactics of the demons – the noise, the colour and the savage, suicidal aggression – was beginning to get to some of the "good" though, so as Sonic weaved his was through the crowded battle ground bouncing off any demon he saw (still with depressingly little effect) he did his best to boost moral, the only way he knew how.

"Come on flash, I thought you were fast – Hey Wolverine, Cyclops just overtook you on the kill count – call that a punch! I've seen drunks do better – you trying to get your self killed or do you just want to make my job more interesting!" and so on.

Sonic was halfway through a second sweep when he heard a bang from overhead. A quick glance upwards revealed that Trigon had managed to land a firm hit on someone, and send them crashing into the ground. Sonic identified the person quick as Alice, a worry for him since she was a Saiyan.

Trigon raise his foot into the air above his battered Granddaughter. "I really hope that your mother is watching this, he laughed, as he stomped his massive foot down on top of her. The smile quickly faded however when he didn't feel the squish of flesh between his toes. Fortunately, he need not wait long to find out why.

"Yeah, I hope she'd watching too," Sonic chuckled, Alice draped limply over his shoulder, "perhaps she won't kill me now!"

"You!" Trigon bellowed, but this and his counter attack where academic to Sonic, how was already somewhere else. He checked Alice's plus. Alive, but unconscious, he thought. The force field around them blinked for a moment, before stabilising. "Ah cock," Sonic muttered.

The Green and Blue Puffs/Ruffs combination had found itself backed into a corner by the oncoming surge of monsters. It wasn't that they were in trouble, it was just that they'd got out positioned slightly. This suited Sonic's needs fine and he burst in behind them.

"Mind if I drop this one off here," he said gesturing to Alice.

The Puffs didn't really have time to look. "Any reason why?" asked Butch, as he fended off an attack.

"You did a good job protecting SP so I thought you might be able to help a few more."

"Is that a compliment?" Bubbles asked sweetly.

"Hold that thought," Sonic interrupted. He charged off again, and returned moments latter with a knocked out Gohan. "Shit they're falling like flies," he muttered. "Can you four keep them safe for me? I'd like to manage a zero casualty rate for once."

"Considering where you've put them," spat Buttercup, "we don't really have a choice – we'd have to die first."

"Good good," Sonic replied, but a crunching sound from the other side of the battle signalled that he was needed else where again. "I need a Red Cross armband," Sonic muttered as he sprinted off once more. "For heaven's sake Blossom how long does it take to talk to a disaffected child!"

* * *

Blossom hadn't reached the talking stage yet, she was too busy trying to stay alive. Freeza's attacks were like lightening, his chopping arms and swinging legs invariably filling the space that Blossom had just pulled her body out of. Dauntingly, he didn't seem to be trying particularly hard either.

Thus Blossom was left with an all too familiar problem; how to attack when she was using all her strength to defend. A potential solution originated from that thought, if she could stop Freeza's attacks with some sort of defence, there might be a chance to launch a counter. So, after plucking up some confidence, she made a grab for Freeza's whirling arms. To her amazement, she caught then, and she quickly filled her legs up, to try and catch her startled opponent under the chin.

This was to underestimate Freeza's speed, and he rocked his head out of the way just in time. "Hmm, good effort," he chucked patronisingly, before hitting the unprotected Blossom with his long white tail.

Like Brick before her, Blossom had never been hit so hard before by one blow. Either that or she was getting old. Anyway, all the air was knocked out of her, and she landed hard in a heap on the dusty floor. Freeza drifted to the floor himself, about a step away.

"Come on," he mocked, "you've got more in you then that surely!"

Blossom hadn't. Not today, it had been too long. It was only a few hours ago that she'd berated Brick for making the deal to get out of here, and moments later let her frustration out on MJ too. And now she was on the cold dusty floor, being implored to fight one of the most evil beings in history (not that he showed it much anymore) when she had no chance of winning. On top of that, if she somehow managed to win, she'd then need to convince MJ to close the portal, something that looked just as difficult. Him had planed it all to perfection, and there are only so many times one can pick themselves up against such odds. Blossom had reached her limit.

"Aw," sniggered Cell, "it appears you finished her off. Too bad, she seemed to have some ability."

"True," agreed Freeza, "I actually had to concentrate. Oh well, suppose I should clean up." He pointed an index finger at the battered Puff, and shot an effortless narrow energy beam out of it towards her. Blossom braced for the end.

It never came, and after what seemed like an age, but was probably just a few seconds, she opened an eye. Freeza and Cell were standing aghast and annoyed, for someone had placed himself in between her and them. She recognised him immediately, but didn't want to believe it.

The towering figure, inch perfect hair cut, blue body suit, red boots and flowing red cape. He'd lost none of his presence through being dead, as he stood there like some sort of super man. Which of course, he was.

"Breaks over," Superman declared commandingly. "Move on you two."

"Oh push off tights boy!" spat Freeza. "Can't you see we're busy?"

"Besides, what happens in Hell is none of your business," Cell barked.

"Maybe," Superman ceded the point with no lose of authority, "but what happens on earth is. I will not allow you to hurt Blossom anymore."

"Really?" Freeza and Cell looked at each other, before laughing together for a disconcertingly long time. Through it all Superman stood as solid and still as a rock, not giving them the pleasure of a response. Eventually Freeza recovered enough to speak.

"How precisely do you intend to enforce this command?" he demanded, poking him in the chest.

Superman's arm moved so fast that Blossom didn't see it. But she heard the bang as it connected with Freeza's face, sending the former emperor hurtling away into – and through – a distant mountain range. "I was thinking like that," Superman replied, with righteous smugness.

Cell just gawped, allowing Superman to temporarily focus all his attention on Blossom, who was just finding her feet again. The significance of the moment wasn't totally lost on her however, despite the confusion and importance of the larger situation. She looked up into the face of the man she murdered, and tried to think of something to say.

"Err…"

Before she got any further Superman interrupted her. "Blossom, I'm sorry for killing Brick. It was an unforgivable loss of control on my part, and I know destroyed your life even more then you destroyed mine. Is there any chance that you can forgive me?"

Now it was Blossom's turn to be aghast. All the times she'd thought about this conversation, it had never gone remotely like this. Through all the guilt that she had heaped upon herself for the crime of letting the man she loved die and killing the hero of the world, it had never occurred to her that Superman might feel guilt for his part in the incident. Maybe her guilt had never occurred to him.

She tried to react naturally, but failed miserably. "What?" was all she could manage to force out initially. "I… mean I killed you?"

"I know," Superman replied. "But do you forgive me?"

Blossom had never not, but she was suddenly aware that MJ was awfully close. Having wriggled free of the still stunned Cell's captivity, she was now almost hanging off her leg like a child again, staring in awe at a man who she'd only ever seen pictures of. Blossom decided to take the chance.

"I do forgive you," she said as calmly as she could, "but you hardly destroyed by life. If you hadn't killed Brick I'd never have met Eddy and then I wouldn't have had this little kid." She gestured to MJ who backed away slightly, possibly through fear. The demonic mark on her forehead burnt brightly, daring Superman to disapprove. He didn't.

"Hello little one," he said gently, bending down to her height. "What's your name?"

"MJ," she replied quickly, shifting from foot to foot nervously. She glanced up at him. "You look bigger as a statue?" she added.

Superman laughed. "I see. Has the myth out grown the man?" He patted MJ gently on the head. "What's a sweet little girl like you doing helping the bad guys?"

"I killed someone," MJ said, this time with regret.

"So, I killed someone too," said Superman.

"And I killed him," Blossom added.

"And I've killed thousands but you don't here me crowing about it!" Cell had found his voice. "Poor Freeza," he continued, now he'd got there attention. "He always hated mountains. But if you think I'll be as easy to brush off, you've got another thing coming!"

Superman strode forwards. "Leave this to me," he said firmly, and a few seconds later he and Cell were crashing into each other, in a blow for blow contest. Except that each impact felt like two planets colliding. Blossom and MJ watched for a while as the two of them cannoned around the landscape at incredible speed MJ with a child like expression of awe written across her face.

Eventually, Blossom felt she better start a dialogue. "They don't call him the man of steel for nothing, do they?"

MJ continued to watch for a moment. "There is something confusing me," she said at last.

"Shoot," Blossom replied, trying to keep her emotions under control and not to think about the battle back on earth.

"How come you prefer Brick to Dad?" MJ asked. "I mean, I can't see what the difference is? I know you say you love him, but I though love was deeper then appearance." Blossom thought for a moment, before MJ interrupted her again. "For that matter, how can Edward have a baby when he's not married? And how can all this be so complicated?"

Blossom blinked for a moment. "You're joking right?" she asked hopefully. How could MJ not see the complexity?

"No!" MJ spoke with anger again. "If you love me as you say you do, then I want to know what's so important that everyone was ignoring me!"

Suddenly Blossom clicked. Of course MJ was confused, how could she possibly understand what was going on if she didn't know of the existence of one crucial element. Maybe her twisted biology prevented her from being curious about it, Blossom thought. Well, it was time for her to destroy her daughter's innocence.

"Umm, I'll try to explain this," she started. "When a Mummy and a Daddy love each other very much, they, umm… get these err… urges…."

* * *

Brick was staring so intently through the force field that he didn't notice someone approaching from behind until they had tapped him on the shoulder. Hence the event startled him considerably.

"What!" he bellowed, before rapidly changing his tone when he saw who it was. "Oh, err… hi Goku," he stuttered nervously, "listen about that kicking you in the groin business, it was… err… shouldn't you be in the battle over there?"

"I was," said Goku in his disarmingly friendly manor, "but I thought that I'd just pop out for a moment to quickly make a plan to win this. I need your help, and his." He produced Edward from behind his back, the kid still hanging from the back of his shirt collar, which was firmly clamped in Goku's left hand. He did not look happy.

"Can't you superheroes do this yourself," he mumbled dejectedly. "I really ort to be with my Dad at the hospital."

Goku looked confused. "Isn't your Dad right here?" he asked.

"Oh don't worry about that Goku," Brick interrupted, spying the opportunity for a cheap shot. "He's disowned me because I care about the people fighting to save the world more then one second hand car salesman."

"They wouldn't need to be fighting if you'd done the descent thing and stayed in Hell where you belong!" Edward was red with rage.

"Really, because I thought it was you're idiot half-sister that opened the portal, while you watched one like the coward you are!"

"Oh sorry, perhaps I should take lessons in bravery from the man who can't even bring himself to tell the women he supposedly loves that he's made a deal with the devil…"

It was clear to Goku that if anything was to come out of this, he'd need to bash some heads together. So he did. "Right!" he declared, as Brick and Edward sat dizzily on the floor, "it is very possible that Sonic's plan will work, and all we be well, but although probably will clear up the smaller demons, Trigon is far more powerful, so might need a little push. So if you two could put aside your differences long enough to help me, then I'll… err… referee a match between you two afterwards, so you can put that hatred to good use!"

"Is violence your solution to everything?" asked Brick tiredly.

"Only when negotiations break down," said Goku, "I'm just not a very good negotiator. Now are you going to help or not?"

* * *

"…and that process is called making love, or more commonly sex. It is what, err… the adults have been… using to make the situation more complex then you knew. Any questions?"

MJ looked like she'd been hit in the face with a baseball bat. "So the man sticks his…"

"Yes."

"Up the…"

"Yep, that's right."

MJ glanced at the ground for a moment, open mouthed, before finally spurting; "That disgusting!"

Blossom thought for a moment. "It's different when you're older. You see…"

"ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE THE WORLD AFTER GOING THROUGH THE ENTIRE SEX EDUCATION PROGRAME OR BEFORE?" Superman called. Cell currently had him caught in a headlock, and was taking great pleasure in knuckle dusting the kryptonian's head.

Blossom decided to move on. "MJ, tell me what happened when the girl died."

MJ looked up. The S mark on her forehead was glowing brightly, but if it hurt she didn't show it. "You mean the one I killed; Vicky?" she asked.

"The one you feel responsible for," Blossom suggested.

MJ looked at her feet. "I was trying to rescue her from the rollercoaster accident, but she sort of fell before I could."

"That doesn't seem like your fault to me," Blossom said. Predictably, MJ squirmed.

"It wasn't quite that straight forward." The mark was now blazing feverishly, and MJ ground to a halt in pain. Blossom reached out her hand, and placed it gently on the point of pain, trying to soften it.

"Please go on MJ," she said gently.

This time MJ looked Blossom straight in the eye. "She recognised me, and… she used to bully me at school. I just wanted to get her to stop being nasty to me and Brick had suggested that I should wait for a moment when I had the upper hand on her and then make her suffer for it. He said that would sort her out. So I did, and she… she fell before I'd finished, and I lost track of her…" There were tears in her eyes now, as the guilt came flooding back. Blossom watched as, with the contract with Trigon broken, MJ's inflated muscles shrunk away like a punctured balloon. "I could have saved her, but I didn't," MJ now bawled. "Just for revenge!"

Blossom grabbed the shivering child into her arms, and stroked her gently as she stared into middle distance. How could she have let this happen? How could her daughter have lived with this on her mind for so long without telling anyone? No wonder she'd gone mad. But Blossom knew as a proud parent, that she should have noticed. She also knew why she hadn't.

"Brick told you," she whispered. MJ nodded, her head buried into Blossom's stomach. Blossom returned her gaze to middle distance, still in a state of shock.

They were both returned to reality when Superman managed to grab Cell's head and yank it down into his knee, before hurling the villain to the ground bellow. The large bangs this made caused MJ to turn round, and she watched as Superman hurtled downwards, and planted a firm boot in Cell's abdomen, causing the android much suffering.

"I guess being a hero is out of the question now mum, isn't it?" MJ said quietly as she watched. Blossom thought for a moment.

"Well, very few of us have never blotted our copy books," she said supportively, "but you know what would be a big help? Reversing that porthole you opened."

MJ looked at her in fear. "But that'll trap us down here!"

"I know," Blossom replied, "but we ort to spend some quality time together, don't you think. Besides, it can only be done from this side, and there's no point escaping if the planet is destroyed, is there?"

MJ eventually nodded. She raised her hands, and the pink energy slowly emanated from them once more, linking up with the portal above them. Then she turned to Blossom once more. "You can still go now, get back home?" she suggested.

Blossom shook her head. "And leave you down here alone? What sort of a mother do you think I am?"

MJ finally smiled. "Okay, here I go..." and after a brief moment of focusing, the portal began to very slowly change.

* * *

Not far to go now, thank God. Feel free to review. 


	28. Bursting the Bubble

Okay, to the best of my knowledge, no one has died in motor sport this week, but congratulations to Kimi Raikkoen, who somehow won the formula one world championship today.

**28. Bursting the Bubble**

Things had got pretty bad in the force field. The minor problem was that they were now loosing the battle quite badly. The heap of battered and crippled superheroes was now quite large (Wolverine had been in and out of it three times already) but this wasn't a disaster. As long as the force field remained intact, Sonic knew that they only had to wait for Blossom to reverse the porthole to win the war.

The major problem was that they were down to two Saiyans, and they were being targeted by the vast majority of the demons. Fortunately, Goku (who Sonic thought they'd lost for a while on account of him going missing) and Vegeta both relished this role, but they couldn't last for ever. That applied to everyone though.

"Come on Blossom," Sonic hissed angrily as he ducked under a swinging clawed hand. The wound in his hand was really hurting now, and his legs were finally showing their age. After jumping over another attack from one of the devilish monsters, they buckled on landing, dumping his unceremoniously on his bottom. While fairly amusing to watch, especially for those Sonic had mocked, this error only didn't cost him his life thanks to rapid intervention from Cyborg.

"Come on Sonic, this is no time for a rest," he quipped surprisingly cheerfully, before resuming the fight, leaving Sonic to reflect on the shame of being saved by a half robot.

"I'm getting too old for this," he groaned, before back flipping on to his feet again via the face of an oncoming demon.

It was as he landed again, that the atmosphere seemed to change. The air inside the force field, which was warm and humid die to the sweat from the battle, suddenly became cold, and clear. The change was so sudden that even the mindless demon's stopped to see what was going on.

"What?" Trigon roared, "What's going on?" He glanced around, suddenly nervous. It was his right hand demon how ever, who clicked first.

"Oh no," Him muttered, with a mixture of panic and anger in his voice. "She wouldn't, she couldn't!"

But his denial was worthless, because a strong, swirling white wind suddenly picked up. It had no spectacular affect on the heroes, but the demons were a different matter. It ripped at them with a viscous ferocity, and yanked the thrashing creature from their feet. Within moments, there was a spiral of screeching creatures being dragged into hell like water down a plug hole.

"No!" Trigon bellowed, as his army was swept away, but it was a typical villain's meaningless cry. Sonic flopped to the ground in relief, to watch from a more comfortable position.

"Knew she could do it," he said, as the cheers of the victors rang out over the seen. "Shame I won't get to thank her really." He closed his eyes for a moment, just to allow him to catch his breath.

It might have been better if he hadn't.

* * *

MJ lowered her hands. The portal could look after its self now. Up in the grey Hell sky, she could see the monsters falling back in. They had a good few miles to fall yet though, so they weren't the most immediate concern. She turned to her mum. "Okay, now what?" she asked.

Blossom looked thoughtful. "Well first things first I suggest we get out of here before Trigon arrives. I don't think he'd be pleased to see us." A strong down draft was beginning to develop, that created a dust bowl at there feet. MJ briefly tried to jump up through it, but didn't get very far before being cannoned back down to earth.

"I guess that's why we can't escape," she said sadly. "So we're going to be stuck here for a while."

"Maybe," Blossom said emotionlessly. Personally she thought the word "forever" more appropriate, but she didn't feel the need to say that. "Unless we make another deal with Him or someone, but I think we've learn our lesson with that, haven't we." MJ nodded enthusiastically.

"I'm sorry for getting us stuck down here," she said sadly. "I should have been able to keep a hold of myself."

Blossom sighed, and looked at her daughter. There was no point mincing words this time. "Yes," she said sadly, "you're right. You needed to look after your self." She sat down next to her daughter. "You see, sometimes not even those who love you most will be able to help you. You saw that today MJ; I love you with all my heart, but I still let you down. I'm only human, and everyone else you meet in your life will also only be human. We make mistakes and we will let you down. But that doesn't mean we don't love you, and it doesn't mean people will never be able to help you. What it means is that on the occasions when there is no one but yourself, and your at the bottom of the dark pit that is life, you need something to hang on to, something no one can take away."

"Like what mum?" asked MJ.

"Oh, there are many things. Faith, religion, ambition, love, memories, sport or an entertaining television show. Something that gives you hope, that shows that life is worth living, even if it does suck."

MJ thought for a moment. "How do you manage?" she asked. Blossom looked distant for a moment.

"I was lucky," she murmured. "I could always rely on your father to have something to moan about. Listening to his "problems" really took my mind of mine." She paused. "Guess I'll have to dig out a Terry Pratchett book now."

"Do they have those in Hell?" MJ asked.

"Humm, I guess not."

They were just about to plod off in the direction of what looked like the exit of the forbidden demon zone, when Superman landed behind them. "Why aren't you trying to get out?" he asked, pointing upwards at the portal.

"We can't," Blossom explained, "the wind is too strong." She paused. "What happened to Cell?"

Superman said nothing, but gestured to the android, whose legs and arms were now tied together. "You just wait!" he shouted in a show of futile aggression. "I'll escape eventually!"

"Sure you will," Superman chuckled, before turning back to the puffs. "He's going to be busy for awhile so let's get you out of here!"

"Umm, how?" asked Blossom, but Superman wasn't listening. He'd reached into his pocket, and withdrew some letters.

"When you get back, can you give these to my friends? They just say that I'm fine and ask some of them to stop bothering you."

"Your still pretty keen on this escape idea aren't you," Blossom replied, but she took them. "I'll take them, but I don't know if they'll believe me if I say there from you."

"They'll believe this," Superman said authoritively, ripping his cape from his back. He handed the flowing cloth to MJ, who took it as if she'd been given a precious relic. "Tie it on," the man of steel encouraged.

"I'm still not clear on how we're getting out of here," Blossom said as MJ attached the cape, which was a good metre too long. Superman smiled.

"Easily enough. You grab my right hand, and MJ the left." With a small shrug from Blossom, the two of them did so. Superman nodded. "Okay, see you later," he said, and before either of them could respond, he hurled them skywards.

For a moment Blossom thought this was immensely foolish. The wind built up rapidly, but to her surprise, she or MJ didn't slow down as much as she thought they would. "We might just make it…" she thought, "maybe you can beat the porthole if your strong enough."

Then she thought again. "What if that works both ways?"

* * *

Sonic looked up when the cheering stopped. Trigon had taken a step back, but he was now digging his feet in, and refusing to budge any further.

"No!" the demon king bellowed. "It won't end like this!"

Leaping to his feet, Sonic instantly regretted his loss of attention, since everyone but Raven had taken it as the cue to relax. "For fuck's sake blast him now and knock him back in!" he roared.

Boomer and Butch where the first to follow this instruction other then the alert Raven. The Green and Blue energy beams combined, and charged towards Trigon's body, while Raven's black wave surged straight to the heart of the matter; the demon's head.

Trigon met his daughter's beam with a mighty eye blast of his own, the two of them meeting with a grating crash, filling the sky with a strange black light. The great Demon then stuck out a hand to reply to Boomer and Butch's efforts, the two brothers realising too late that they had now committed themselves. Sonic watched in horror as the three heroes efforts where easily suppressed by Trigon, who no longer seemed bothered by the situation. The only good news was that neither Raven's nor the ruffs beams were being engulfed, so the battle was fairly even, although it appeared that this situation could be temporary.

"If I'm going back to Hell then I'm taking you with me!" Trigon roared. "I'll destroy you all!"

Sonic made two quick judgments. Firstly, Trigon was able to fulfil his threat, and secondly there was nothing he personally could do about it. For all their uses, supersonic hedgehogs aren't a great deal of help against giant demonic monsters with blasting powers. This annoyed him, so he decided to take his rage out on appropriate targets.

"What are you imbeciles doing!" he bellowed at those not involved, "Get him!"

Cyclops, Jean Grey and the Green Lantern combined a blast of their own (aware that their solitary blasts would have limited effect,) but Trigon used his other arm to counter that. Goku and Vegeta made a move too, but Sonic spotted it.

"Not you two, we need you to hold this force field up!"

Trigon laughed manically. "Your precious barrier will help you no more!" he roared, before opening his mouth and firing another blast, this time directly at the planets surface.

"That is not a cue to intervene!" Sonic bellowed at the Saiyans. This just left Bubbles and Buttercup, who dived in the way of the large blast.

Sonic stood back, in a mixture of fear and hopelessness, among the few other remaining "blastless" heroes. There was nothing left he could do.

* * *

"Hey, how come we got lumped with the largest one!" Buttercup groaned. Energy duels weren't her preferred form of fighting, but she didn't have a choice right now.

"We'll manage," Bubbles replied, "besides, the one Raven's dealing with is actually slightly larger."

Buttercup glanced across at her sister. Bubbles fighting talk however didn't seem to match her condition. Her voice was weak and her skin pale, but her eyes seemed to be burning blue. Buttercup looked forwards again at the blast they were generating. It was mostly blue. "Trying to make me look weak aren't you?" she growled. "Don't try too hard or you'll kill yourself!"

"I'm not…" Bubbles paused. Buttercup looked across at her sister again, worriedly. She noticed that her skin wasn't pale as first thought. It was turning Blue. Her hair was also losing it's colour, and seemingly longer. Buttercups suddenly clicked.

"Your… not giving your all… Your trying to suppress it aren't you?"

Bubbles shuddered. "It was your knowledge of our condition that kept you away from me all those years, wasn't it?"

Buttercup tried to ignore it, but she could feel Bubbles probing her mind. To avoid it, she relented. "Yes, alright!" she roared, unleashing her anger into the blast. "I was scared… I wanted to forget."

"Buttercup, promise me that if you survive today, you'll learn to suppress it…" she breathed heavily as her skin glowed more, and her voice became more strained. "The original change didn't effect you for as long, so maybe you can fight it…"

"Bubbles, don't speak like that."

"I have no choice, if this doesn't end soon I'll have to use my full power again," she sighed, "and then I have no idea what will happen."

* * *

"Dam this stupid force field your "genius" son came up with," Vegeta cursed. "I can still feel it draining my power. If it wasn't for that I'd have been able to finish off this joker long ago!"

"Sure you would," replied Goku calmly, "but you do know that he'd then have turned everyone else on the plant to stone."

"Can he do that?"

"I believe so; you should talk to your Granddaughter's mother more often."

"Humph," Vegeta grunted. "She's just a bad influence."

Goku said nothing. He was studying Bubbles intently. "Her power levels rising far too rapidly." He muttered.

"Stop jabbering Kakarott!" Vegeta growled. "Are we going to finish this or not!"

Goku laughed. "Sure, let's give this Demon one it the eye!"

Ignoring Sonic this time, the two of them charged upwards and stopped level with the struggling Raven. "Having fun?" asked Goku.

Raven couldn't even summon the strength to look at them. "He's… stronger…then…last…time," she stuttered.

"Ha, you've gone soft with age!" mocked Vegeta. He stuck out an arm. "Take this you oversized freak!"

"Kamehameha!" Goku bellowed, and the two Saiyans unleashed as much energy as they could, directing it straight at Trigon's eye beam. With Ravens help, the two of them were able to force Trigon's beam back towards him. But even for them, it wasn't easy. "Keep going Vegeta," Goku called. "You've got to give it everything you've got!"

"Save your motivational speeches for someone that needs it!" Vegeta screamed. "What do you think I'm doing!"

* * *

"Look! Bubbles! We're winning!" Buttercup cried. Bubbles looked upwards in surprise, to see Goku's, Vegeta's and Raven's efforts.

"Oh, thank goodness," she relaxed. The pressure on her hands was easing, as Trigon redirected his energy to defending himself from the Saiyans, so she dropped her power level. As the colour returned to her face, she reflected that perhaps she may be able to fight this after all.

* * *

Sonic looked up at the battle, hope growing in his heart. "Maybe, maybe they can do it…" he muttered. Then, above him he saw the force field flicker. "Oh bollocks, they're running out of energy!" He stared up at them in anger, watching their energy waves falter. There didn't seem anything else for it.

"DAM IT, I KNEW YOU'D BE THE DEATH OF ME YOU STUPID SAIYANS!!" he roared, as Goku and Vegeta, tired from there constant exertion, suddenly collapsed. In an instant, the force field disappeared, and the night's sky appeared once more. Their was a collective gasp from those not too busy energy duelling, as Trigon seemed to start laughing (well, as much as one can laugh with an open mouth and energy flying out of it.

Sonic feel to his knees. "Sod it," he muttered. However, he then heard two distinct sounds through the din. Firstly, the sound of a barely conscious Goku quietly chuckling to himself, and secondly, the sound of two people chanting "Kame…"

Brick and Edward still weren't looking at each other, or talking to each other, but even the most self-righteous of characters can pull together if the situation is dire enough. The two of them had the trademark red energy balls glowing in there hands, and expressions of steely concentration on their faces. They were even managing to just about keep in time. "…hame…"

"How the…" Sonic gasped. "Who planned this!"

"HA!" the father and son combination pushed their hands forward, firing two energy beams that quickly became one.

It was only now that Trigon noticed them, but for him it was already too late. Just like how the strongest boxer could be taken out by a cheeky hit to the back of the head, the fact that the blast was hopelessly weak (due to Brick's lack of practise and Edward's lack of experience,) it didn't matter. He had already used up all his possible means of defence, so this one was going to hit.

It struck him in the forehead, and Trigon reared up, waving his hands about wildly as he tried to maintain his balance. In the process, he broke the duels with his earlier attackers, and after the briefest hesitation, the eight of them fired one last effort, Raven leading the way. Nothing could stop them now, and with a burning crash, and a cry of "NOO!!" Trigon was finally lifted off his feet, and to the cheers of the victors, fell straight back down into Hell.

As Trigon disappeared from sight, to the amassment of all, two figures cannoned out from the porthole through his legs. Blossom and MJ spun through the air and landed with a thud among the heroes, the later on her feet and the former rather less gracefully on her back. This development was greeted by further cheers from the Puff contingent, as the porthole closed with a quiet pop.

* * *

While all this was going on, the exhausted Vegeta turned slowly to Goku. "Kakarott," he asked, "if all that was required was for someone to hit him in the head, why didn't we just do that?"

"Not sure," Goku replied quietly. "Probably because if we had then this story would be in the wrong section."

* * *

Blossom didn't waste time in getting back to her feet. She needed to from a physical barrier between her work colleagues and her daughter. The last time they'd seen MJ she'd been on the side of the Demons. Some of them had adoptive potentially aggressive positions.

"It's alright she called," putting a hand on her scared child. "She's back on the right side now." There were a couple of murmurs of descent over this suggestion, but they quickly faded as the group started to notice what MJ had round her neck.

"Where did you get that?" asked Wonder Women in shock, pointing at Superman's cape. MJ looked at it embarrassedly, before turning to her mum for help. Blossom just smiled.

"Oh this?" she said, taking the cloak gently from MJ. "Yes, Superman gave us this after helping us out. Nice man, isn't he?" The absolute silence that greeted this announcement was very satisfying. Blossom took a moment to enjoy it before picking Sonic out of the crowd. "I've got some letters from him too," she said, handing them to the Hedgehog, "I think though that you ort to take charge of dispersing them."

Sonic looked at them, and then at Blossom. "Got lucky then I see," he smiled. "Okay, lets get the wounded to the medical bay and then I'll hand these out."

This was taken as the cue to relax. The heroes that had been on guard from a possible attack from MJ now switched to more important matters, namely taping up their minor wounds and helping those with more major bangs to safety. A good number though lingered around Blossom though, only with eyes for where Superman's cape might end up.

This didn't really bother Blossom too much however, since Edward had managed to make his way through to her (on foot once more.) "Umm, dad's in the hospital, so I think I ort to go see him," he said.

Blossom looked up for a moment at Brick. He was standing a short distance behind his son, (although Edward had been referring to Eddy) wearing an extremely smug expression on his face. He was obviously very proud of his achievements today, but Blossom didn't know whether it was justified. "I should go with…" she began, but before she could get any further, there was a massive blue flash that bowled her off her feet, followed quickly by a yellow one.

The first blast had blown most of the heroes out of the way of the second. It could be traced back to Bubbles. She'd wedge her self in between the source of the yellow blast and everyone else, using her own energy to make sure no one else got hit. "No one else" being the operative phrase, since she now had a hole in her chest where her heart should have been.

From behind her, Him sneered, lowering his claw like hand. "Well, at least I got one of you stinking Puff!" he hissed as he began to fade in trademark style, "I finally killed one!"

As he finished vanishing, Bubbles flopped hopelessly forward to the ground, an event greeted but utter silence.


	29. What's love got to do with it?

**29. What's Love Got to do With It?**

The silence was deafening. It swirled across the rubble strewn ground and between the heroes like the cold wind of realisation. The majority of them had managed to swivel round enough to see what had happened, but few had got much further.

There was very little blood, despite the hole in the chest. Since Him's blast had surged straight through Bubbles' heart, there was nothing to pump it around anymore, hence it had quickly settled into equilibrium. However, it had quickly become equally clear that this did not reduce the seriousness of the condition.

Eventually, Boomer staggered a few steps forward and feel rapidly to his knees beside his wife's head. Gently picking it up, his face an expression of horror, he ran his fingers gently over Bubbles' cold face down to the pulse in her neck, allowing him to confirm what he already knew. His head bowed slowly, and then he started to cry.

Buttercup had beaten him to it on that front, side stepping into the shell shocked Butch's arms. Brick attempted to do the same for Blossom, but to his surprise found himself shouldered off.

"No Brick, not now!" Blossom spoke firmly despite her cracking voice. Her words scraped across the silent land, making everyone not directly connected to the tragedy feel even more awkward. So as Blossom staggered round to Buttercup (the two of them quickly entering a mutual mourning hug and thus releasing Butch to comfort his brother,) Sonic gave them their marching orders.

"Dismissed," he said in a soft yet commanding voice, and all but the Puffs and Ruffs dispersed. The hedgehog himself took a moment longer. Having far to much experience in this sort of thing, he gently removed Superman's cloak from Blossom's shaking hand, and used it to cover the wounded Bubbles up to her head, giving the poor women what he considered to be some dignity. Then he left too.

This scene persisted for what seemed like an hour (although it was probably far less) with Brick and SP standing around like spare parts, and a short distance away Edward attempting console the guilt ridden MJ.

Eventually, Butch gently nudged Boomer on the shoulder. "We can't leave her here all night," he whispered. His brother sniffed heavily, but nodded. Grabbing the end of Superman's cloak, he readied himself to pull it over her face, but stopped again. It was only when, sometime latter, Blossom and Buttercup found the strength to join him in covering her up that they managed.

Having performed this symbolic act of acceptance, the four of them stood up again, still in tears, only for the cape that had been thinly covering Bubbles' body, to suddenly fall flat to the floor.

* * *

When Roland sombrely opened the black door to his apartment, he was surprised to see Brandy waiting just inside. "Hello there," he said more cheerfully then he felt, "have you been waiting for me?"

Buttercups four-year old unborn daughter nodded enthusiastically, before peering around him expectantly. Roland watched her do it. "What are you looking for?" he asked, as if he didn't know.

"I was hoping my Aunty might be here," she said, disappointedly, her shoulders sagging.

"Now what made you think that?"

"I… err…"

"I've told you before not to go searching through the hourglasses Brandy," Roland scolded firmly. "There are much better things that you should or could be doing."

"I know," Brandy said in the American accent she had somehow picked up despite being looked after by a European (Roland thought it might have come from Death himself). "But I did look and one of them carried the name Bubbles!"

Roland didn't have to think for long before deciding to lie. "Its quite a popular name you know," he said. "Therefore it wasn't you Aunty. Okay."

Brandy nodded sadly. Roland sighed.

"I need to have a wash," he said calmly, "and then I'll cook your dinner." Poor child, he thought, as he walked into the bathroom.

Brandy waited until he'd gone, and then scuttled over to Roland's cloak, which he'd hung on the rack. She was fairly certain Bubbles wasn't a common name, and sure enough, in one of the pockets, she found an hourglass…

* * *

With the others seemingly too afraid to, Brick reached down and whipped the cape back off the ground again. Sure enough, where there had once been Bubbles' body, there was now nothing. "What the Hell!" he muttered.

Boomer stared at the space. Then he started looking around franticly, in the hope of locating it, dropping to his hands and knees and feeling the ground in desperation. "Where… where did she go!" he cried. "Is she… I mean… What does this mean?"

Above him Buttercup stared at the space in fear. Immediately after Bubbles' death, she'd been desperately searching through the last few hours of conversation with her sister, trying to find some meaning in her words that suggested that she'd forgiven her for ignoring her for the last four years. Maybe she had, but her words and action carried a different sign too. The sign of a Bubbles that had been trying and failing to suppress a lust for power, one who feared what she had become and what she was capable of. Had she let Him's blast kill her in order to stop herself? And if so, had it worked?

"_Buttercup, promise me that if you survive today, you'll learn to suppress it…"_The words ran through Buttercups head. What did they mean?

"Maybe she's not dead…" the Green Puff found herself wondering aloud. Boomer swung round.

"What? Do you really think that's possible?" he asked, his voice filled with hope. "Then where is she?"

"Don't talk like that," Blossom interrupted quietly yet firmly, in a voice that instantly sucked the energy out of the conversation. "She's gone, and denial of that will drive us mad. We should let the dead stay dead." With that, she turned on her heal, and floated into the air. "Come on children, let's go and see if they've saved your father."

Edward and MJ followed quickly, leaving the rest where they stood. Eventually Brick spoke.

"What do you suppose she meant by letting the dead stay dead?" he asked. No one was supposed to reply, but SP wasn't 'no one.'

"She means this is your fault," she said without hesitation, killing the atmosphere at a stroke.

* * *

Eddy didn't seem too badly injured by the standards of some of the Superheroes that had come off the battle field. However he didn't have any powers to help protect him (although he had proved to be quite durable in the past.)

Blossom sat in the corner of his bay, holding his hand and staring belatedly at the heart monitor machine. She was alone now. Alice had apparently recovered, and Blossom had suggested to Edward that it might be wise to go and say hello to her, while MJ had asked to be excused. Blossom had been happy to oblige, since she didn't like seeming weak in front of her children. With them gone now she could let her face show how wretched she was feeling.

"Come on Eddy," she whispered quietly. "I can't afford to loose you and Bubbles."

There was a knock on the door. When she didn't answer, Sonic opened it anyway. There was none of his usual bluster, he just closed the door quietly, and sat down.

"Do you mind?" he asked. "I thought you might like some company." Blossom shook her head. Sonic paused for a minute. "I know what you're going through," he said quietly, his own voice cracking slightly. "I know what it's like to lose a sister, and to feel responsible for it."

"What makes you think I feel responsible?" Blossom said. Sonic raised an eyebrow, and the pink puff instantly cracked. "I could have stopped this…" she admitted, tears beginning to flow again. "If I'd just asked a few more questions, none of this would have happened."

"Unfortunately," Sonic replied slowly, "I think you're right. I would also say that you'd learnt something today, expect that you already knew it, didn't you?"

Blossom sighed heavily. "It's not right," she muttered. "I drop the ball for two weeks and my sister gets killed."

"That's the price you pay for doing this job," Sonic said, but his voice was full of regret. "I wish it was not so. But when you have such gifts, what are the other options? Super villainy or denial I suppose… but even Edward helped today."

"That's not quite what I meant," Blossom snapped. "If Crash decides to send a day in bed nothing would go wrong…"

"Yes it would, the bins wouldn't be emptied."

"… but I screw up and loose… so much." Blossom's head collapsed into her hands. Sonic put a gently hand on her shoulder.

"Some people are born into responsibility, some people gain responsibility and some people have responsibility thrust upon them," he said.

"Don't quote Shakespeare Sonic. It doesn't suit you."

"I didn't, he said greatness."

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that your not seventeen anymore," the hedgehog replied. When Blossom just looked at him, he carried on. "Listen, when you were, you had not responsibilities, and nothing to worry about except your own future. Those were going to be the best days of your life, and its only right that you have great memories of those times and of the man you loved through them. But now you have a family to look after, and a world that needs you. If you really want Brick more then anything else, then you can have him. Go back to when you were seventeen. But you can't take anything with you. Your children will resent it, I think your lucky not to loose them anyway, and I'll never find anyone as good as you for your job. But the option is there. So it's your choice in the end: become seventeen and life for yourself, or stay thirty eight, and live a thankless lie for the world."

Blossom looked at Sonic hard. There was a glaze of tears on her eyes. "You know what I'm going to do, don't you."

Sonic nodded. "He's outside now, if you want to speak to him."

Blossom choked slightly. "I can't. It will destroy him."

"You've got to be cruel to be kind," Sonic replied as he stood up. "But I'll leave you to think it over. Remember what happened last time you hesitated."

"Thanks," Blossom replied bitterly. She looked back at Eddy's heart monitor again. "Okay, its now or never Blossom, whose it going to be. Brick… or everyone else?" Last time she'd had that choice she had hesitated, and had ended up with nothing. But even if she had chosen wrong as a seventeen year old girl, it could be put down to the inexperience of youth, and thus was reversible. However, at thirty-eight, she was (supposed) to be an experience adult, even if she didn't feel like one right now. This time, her decision would have to be final.

* * *

MJ hung on the outside of the hospital, staring dejectedly at the car park way bellow her. Not for the first time today, she was musing on life's great issues – most notably, what was the point?

Her battered, blood stained costume was drenched in sweat from the earlier battle, and it sucked the heat out of her in the cold wind. She really wanted a wash, but at the moment, she didn't feel that she deserved one. Besides, the state of the costume was a suitable metaphor.

There was a gentle thud on the wall next to her. "Good grief, you look a state," a male voice said cheerfully.

MJ looked across at Spider-man, who'd joined her on the wall. She took half a step away. "What are you here for, to arrest me?" she asked suspiciously.

"Why? I heard that you helped to save the world today."

"Only after I'd put it in danger first," MJ replied dejectedly.

"Ah well, we all do that occasionally," Spider-man chuckled.

"Really?"

"Of course. We may be superheroes, but that doesn't make us infallible. Besides, the villains wouldn't be doing there jobs properly if they didn't try to trick us."

MJ sighed. "Being a Superhero is hard," she lamented.

"What made you think it wasn't?"

"The stories my two aunties used to tell me when I was young," MJ smiled, remembering a better time. "It always sounded such an exciting job, and everything seemed to go to plan. Even being captured and tortured was just a setback, and the more often you nearly got killed, the better…" Her face crumbled. "Poor aunty Bubbles," she sniffed. "It shouldn't have happened. If I'd just been a little stronger, and not listened to Him, then it wouldn't have."

"Then next time, you will have the strength, won't you," replied Spider-man, in the tone of someone who knows.

MJ nodded. Then she plucked up courage to ask a question. "Is it possible to be a Superhero if you don't like people?"

Spider-man laughed. "Batman manages it! No, seriously, it is. Super villains don't like people either, but we have one thing that they don't: compassion. When you accidentally let that girl die…"

"…how do you…"

"…you couldn't live with yourself, could you?"

MJ sighed. "No."

"Your conscience forbid it. That's why Him tried to take it from you, and it is also why you will be a hero. As long as you feel you have blood on your hands – whether you actually were responsible or not – you will find the strength to do the right thing. In the name of your poor aunty."

Before MJ could reply, Spider-man jumped off the wall, and swung away, leaving the little Spider-puff with much more positive food for thought.

* * *

As expected, all the golden sand in the hourglass was sitting in a neat heap at the bottom; a sure sigh that it's owner's life had expired. That wasn't the whole story however, because when Brandy looked closer, she could see that in the top bowl, there was a very fine blue sand, which was flowing upwards. The amount of it was increasing too, quite rapidly. Brandy was no expert, but she was fairly sure it wasn't supposed to do that.

Brick wasn't alone outside when Blossom finally left Eddy's bedside. Buttercup, Butch and Boomer where there too, but it didn't look like they were planning to stay long.

"We just came to say that Boomer's going to spend the night with us," Butch explained (for his brother and wife were too choked to speak.) "You're welcome to join us of course," he offered supportively.

"Don't we have a few things to sort at home Blossom," suggested Brick, thinking back to there earlier argument.

"Err…" Blossom hesitated, just what she hadn't wanted to do. She was rescued however by Boomer, who managed to force a few words out of his mouth.

"How's Eddy doing?" he asked.

Blossom looked at the ring on her finger, and made her decision. "He's getting there thanks." Then she turned to Brick. "I think we better sort this out here."

"Oh, yes sure," said Brick, taking this to be a good sign. He was wrong.

"Alright." Blossom did her best to look him in the eye. "I think it might be best for us to go our separate ways."

Brick nearly fell over. "Pardon! That's a joke right!"

"Please Brick, think about it…"

"I am thinking! I don't see anything wrong with us!"

"Really?" Blossom countered. "Then why didn't you tell me the truth about how you got back to earth, even when we knew Edward had knocked someone up! Why did you tell my daughter that it was alright to pick on someone for revenge without consulting me first!"

"Okay, so I messed up a little bit, its not as if Eddy hasn't ever."

"Bubbles is dead Brick. That isn't a little mess up." Blossom sounded a lot more angry then she meant to, forcing Brick to take a step back. She composed herself. "Listen, we had some great times when we were young, but that was then. So much has changed since then, and I can't trust myself to be the person I need to be when I'm with you. You bring the best and the worst out of me and that is not something that can happen anymore. I'm sorry."

Brick watched open mouthed as Blossom turned and walked over to the door back to Eddy's hospital bay. Just as she got there, he found his tongue. "Don't you love me Blossom!? Do you deny that?"

Blossom's shoulders slumped, but she didn't turn round. "Under the circumstances Brick, I don't consider that question relevant." With that, she opened the door and gently closed it behind her.

Brick had gone slightly pale. He turned to the other for support, but found none. Boomer and Buttercup where staring into middle distance, while although Butch made eye contact with his brother, he didn't offer him any help.

"Things change," he said sympathetically. "People do too."

* * *

Blossom flopped in the chair beside Eddy's bed and collapsed her head into her hands. She'd done the right thing, she knew that. It didn't stop it hurting though like a dagger though the heart.

Then she felt a gentle hand on her knee. Looking up suddenly, she saw Eddy weakly looking at her, having regain consciousness. "You didn't have to do that," he croaked.

Blossom shook her head. "No, I did."

"Why?" Eddy coughed for a moment. "I thought that love conquered all?"

"It does. Everything accept love."

* * *

Somewhere in the deep depths of the universe, there was a thought. It doesn't really matter what it was, the fact that there was one was surprising enough. The thought thought about this for a moment, which by definition caused it to think. So after further thought it reached the following conclusions.

_I think._

_I think, therefore I am._

_If I am, I am not not. So I am not dead?_

Then it paused. What was it to be dead? Did such a concept apply to the thought.

_I can not be dead, for I was never alive._

_Then what am I?_

More paused, as the fringes of time and space itself began to shake with fear.

_I think, therefore I am._

_I am Chaos._

* * *

There, finished. At last. Okay then, I will be writing another sequel, which will hopefully be more enjoyable (for me to write) and less heavy then this one. So hopefully it will be a bit quicker to. Thanks for reading, and thanks to SithKnight-Galen for helping me re-jig the ending. 


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